Krassimir Balakov, one of the people rumoured to be the next head coach of Bulgaria’s national football team, is most likely to go to Hertha Berlin. According to media in both Germany and Switzerland, Balakov was offered the job of Hertha’s head coach.
At present, Balakov is in charge of the Swiss team Grasshoppers, which is not doing well in the Swiss championships and is facing a financial crisis. According to reports from daily German tabloid Bild, Hertha Berlin had shown great interest in attracting Balakov. Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger published the same information.
“The news about Balakov going to Hertha came after Balakov met with the new management of Grasshoppers, which, in general, did not provide with much information for the media,” Tages-Anzeiger wrote on April 26. “It is more than clear that Balakov would prefer to work in Germany than in Switzerland, as he himself had said before.”
Balakov took over Grasshoppers in January 2006 with the ambition to make the team fit to play in the UEFA tournaments. This was Balakov’s first engagement as head coach since he left the field as a professional football player in 2003. Before Grasshoppers, Balakov worked as a second coach at his last team, Stuttgart, where he gained experience.
Despite Balakov’s enthusiasm, Grasshoppers did not do well and talks about Balakov’s leaving the team had become something as a daily routine for the Swiss sport media. That was why, when Hristo Stoichkov left the position of head coach of Bulgarian National Team, speculations emerged about Balakov taking over.
When Stanimir Stoilov, head coach of Bulgarian Levski FC, was appointed temporary coach of Bulgarian National Team on April 25, Levski executive director Nasko Sirakov said that Balakov was the right choice for head coach.
Stoilov had agreed to take over the team only for the next two games, against Belarus, in June.
After that, the hunt for Stoichkov’s successor would be continued.
“I think that Balakov has all it takes to be coach of the team,” Sirakov told a news conference on April 25.
With the option of being Hertha’s coach, Balakov is very unlikely to accept Sirakov’s proposal. Right now is not the best time for anyone to take over Bulgaria. The team is in a bad position, occupying third place in its group for the Euro 2008. Ahead are the strong teams of The Netherlands and Romania, and whoever accepts the job will face a tough situation. As a beginner in coaching, Balakov would not want to fail in his first engagement as Bulgaria’s coach as Stoichkov did.
Another reason to prefer Germany to Bulgaria at the moment is that Germany was Balakov’s home for more than eight years, when he played for Stuttgart. Although Balakov did not achieve much with Stuttgart, he was always regraded with respect by both fans and media for his unquestionable qualities as a player and a person.
Through all those years spent in Portugal and Germany, he manged to keep his name free from any scandals, which added to his positive reputation. Balakov is strongly involved in charity as well. He is among the most dedicated supporters of SOS-Kinderdorf Children’s Villages in Bulgaria.
