100 years of the national team of Bulgaria: The beginning is on the train to Vienna with 5 kilograms of cigarettes

It starts 100 years ago. The Bulgarian national football team played its first match as the country’s official team in the already popular game in May 1924. In the previous year, 1923, the Bulgarian National Sports Federation (BNSF) was founded, and the meeting for its establishment in the Military Club in Sofia was attended by representatives of all the societies from the various cities, already established and operating until that moment.

And with the existence of a federation, Bulgaria can now be accepted as a member of FIFA. And this happened in 1924. And it makes it possible to play the first match in the history of the national football team of our country.

The rest is history. A hundred years old already. Seven rankings at world championships, two appearances at European finals. Many memorable matches and great victories over powers such as Germany, France, Italy, Argentina. Quite a few difficult moments and defeats – who doesn’t have them?

Corner.bg will introduce you the series “100 years of the national team of Bulgaria” starting today, as a series of materials, we will look at unforgettable individual matches or periods in this century of history of the only team in our country, around which all fans should be united in their support.

THE BEGINNING

Since on May 14, 1984, the Swiss Georges de Régibus officially started the football movement in Bulgaria, it will take 3 decades before our country gets its own national team. After the Bulgarian National Sports Federation was founded at the end of 1923 (with the honorary chairman, Tsar Boris III, and the head of our former ambassador in Madrid, Dimitar Ivanov), a breakneck development of football began.

Our country was accepted as a member of FIFA in May 1924 and wasted absolutely no time to enter international meetings. That same month, the hastily formed national football team headed to Vienna for his historic first fight, although friendly.

The date is May 21, the venue is the “Hoe Warte” stadium, and the opponent is the much stronger team of Austria.

It is a curious fact that the Bulgarian nationals take the scrap train to the Austrian capital, being sent as true heroes. Hundreds of people flock to the station to wish success to the competitors who will start the international matches in the history of Bulgaria.

And as curiously then the newspaper “Sport” informed – the tobacco factory “Enige” sponsors our national team with five kilos of cigarettesso they can smoke freely during the trip.

The Bulgarian national team does not even have a coach in those days, and as such, for the specific meeting, the local specialist Leopold Nitsch, then the coach of Rapid Vienna, became.

Our team lost expectedly and catastrophically with 0:6, and the starters in the lineup are: goalkeeper Petar Ivanov, in front of him field players Alexander Hristov, Simeon Yankov, Geno Mateev, the captain from Varna Boyan Byanov, Dimitar Manolov – the “Boyan Bear”, Dimitar Mutafchiev – “Murtso”, Nikola Mutafchiev – “Kolishcheto”, Tsvetan Genev – “Tseko”, Konstantin Maznikov and Kiril Jovovich.

Only a week later, however, it also took place the first official international match To Bulgaria. This happened on May 28, 1924 during the Summer Olympics in Paris, France. And another curious thing – the opponent is Ireland, for whom the match is also a debut in history.

Our players are considered outsiders, but they play extremely bravely and motivated against the no less cocky Irish. Unfortunately, in the 75th minute, the referee conceded a non-existent goal by the Irish midfielder Paddy Duncan, nicknamed the Scumbag, and thus the Bulgarian national team ended its participation in the Olympic Games.

But this does not matter at all – the beginning of the national team, although difficult, is a given. And the 100-year journey can begin.

To get to the historic first goal for Bulgaria. It was marked by Nikola Mutafchiev, nicknamed Kolishcheto, in the 1:2 loss to Turkey in Istanbul. The first victory was after five years of waiting, on October 12, 1930, against Romania at the “Slavia” stadium in Sofia with a score of 5:3. Nikola Staykov – “Toleto” scored two goals in this match, and Velcho Stoyanov, Asen Peshev – “Kapuy” and Vasil Vassilev scored one each.

In the same year – 1930, the Bulgarian national team was ready to participate in the first World Cup, but due to bad weather conditions, it failed to reach Uruguay in time and then has to wait more than 30 years for his first chance at the biggest international forum.

In 1932, the “lions” won the Balkan Cup in Belgrade and were welcomed as heroes upon their return to their homeland.

And contrary to all expectations – in the same period was that infamous duel in 1934 against Spain.

Our national team is at the stadium in La Coruña beaten with the record 0:13, but there is a completely logical explanation for this result. Again, due to lack of funds, the Bulgarian players take a long train journey, but that is the lesser of the problem. The big surprise is the arrival, when they are shocked to realize that the match will be played on grass, and not on the cinder block only known in Bulgaria.

The shoes Bulgarians play with have smooth soles. Unlike the Spanish, who have buttons.

What’s more – on the day of the match, heavy rain poured over the Spanish capital, which made the pitch difficult to play on, turning it into a rink for the Bulgarian footballers. 12 of the goals were Spanish, and one was an own goal by Konstantin Efremov.

And to this day this record remains unbeaten. Fortunately.

But despite the difficult start – successes for Bulgaria on the international stage are yet to come.

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