Aston Villa’s Stiliyan Petrov is returning to the Bulgarian national football team, Bulgarian-language daily Trud said on March 17.
National coach Hristo Stoichkov confirmed this to national private television station bTV.
Petrov will play for Bulgaria in the March 28 match against Albania. Bulgaria is to host the European championship qualifier, which could prove to be decisive for Stoichkov and the team.
Petrov’s return has been long awaited in Bulgaria. He is among the country’s top football stars and is widely expected to contribute to a good performance.
Petrov’s decision to return brings to an end a conflict that threatened Bulgaria’s chances of qualifying for the 2008 UEFA European Championship. The championship, to be held in June, will be co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland.
Petrov left the team in October 2006 after a poor performance on home soil against Luxembourg. Despite the 1:0 win, Petrov said that he could not remain on the team with Stoichkov in charge.
Although Petrov refused to give interviews, several Bulgarian-language newspapers published comments by him, saying that Stoichkov was the reason for his departure and there was no way for him to come back. Petrov was quoted as saying that Stoichkov was not impartial and had strange ways of communicating with players. Stoichkov reportedly blamed several players, Petrov among them, for the team’s bad performance.
Bearing in mind Stoichkov’s notorious bad temper, Bulgarian-language media expected the conflagration to spread.
But to public astonishment, Stoichkov chose a different approach. “I have faith in Petrov and the door to the national team will be always open for him,” he said.
This stance was repeated several times by other members of the Bulgarian Football Union.
“We all hope that Petrov will change his mind and come back and help the team qualify for the finals next year,” BFU president Borislav Mihailov told private national television channel Nova Televisia a few weeks ago.
Other players also joined in calls for Petrov to come back.
His close friends Dimitar Berbatov and Atletico Madrid’s Martin Petrov said in a series of interviews that Petrov should return. “We speak to him almost daily and hope that he will come back,” Berbatov said.
Petrov said at the time that he would not change his mind, which made his decision to return something of a surprise.
“I met Stoichkov few days ago in Vienna. We discussed the situation and I told him everything I wanted to. We have cleared up everything between us and I want to play for the team,” Petrov told bTV on March 17.
The news was welcome.
“I have already forgotten about the conflicts between us. I wanted Petrov to change his mind of his own accord,” Stoichkov told bTV.
With Petrov on the team, along with Tottenham’s Berbatov, Stoichkov will have no excuse for a poor performance against Albania.
On March 19 Stoichkov named his team, with 10 players from the Bulgarian championships. Six come from Levski Sofia, which is Stoichkov’s acknowledgement of Levski’s great performance in the championship so far. CSKA Sofia is represented by two players and Lokomotiv Sofia and Litex Lovech each have one representative.
Footballers playing abroad who received invitations to the national team include Dimitar Ivankov (Kayserispor, Turkey), Radoistin Kishishev (Leeds United), Stiliyan Petrov (Aston Villa), Berbatov (Tottenham Hotspurs), Valeri Bozhinov (Juventus), Svetoslav Todorov (Portsmouth), Georgi Peev (Amkar, Russia), Zoran Yankovich (Dalien, China), Chavdar Yankov (Hannover 96), Zdravko Lazarov (Erciyesspor, Turkey), Marian Hristov (Wolfsburg) and Blagoi Georgiev (Crvena Zvezda, Serbia).
At the last minute, Vladimir Manchev, who plays for Spain’s Real Valladolid, dropped out because of an injury.
Bulgaria is in qualifying group G together with the Netherlands, Romania, Belarus, Slovenia, Albania and Luxembourg. Bulgaria is second in the group with eight points after leader the Netherlands, who has 10 points. One point behind Bulgaria is its northern neighbour Romania. The first three teams are the only in the group without a defeat so far. Fourth is Belarus with four points. The standings make it clear that the battle for second place is most likely to be between Bulgaria and Romania. In autumn 2006, Bulgarian managed a draw against Romania, which gives the Bulgarian side an advantage in direct clashes. All could be decided on March 24 when the Netherlands hosts Romania. The outcome of the game will show whether Bulgaria has a chance for first place, a direct ticket to the final stage next year. If it comes second, Bulgaria will have to play an additional game after the end of the qualification rounds.
