Close to nine thousand readers of the website manoftheyear.bg voted Plamen Konstantinov to be the Bulgarian man of the year, Bulgarian media reported on November 10.

The captain of the national volleyball team was in the top three nominations along with Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov and stage and film director Yavor Gurdev. During the first weeks of the voting, which continued for 25 days, Berbatov was the readers' choice, but then yielded to Konstantinov.

Konstantinov, one of Bulgaria's most experienced players, made headlines during the Beijing Olympics, when he was banned by the chairperson of the country's volleyball federation from playing over suspicions of a failed doping test. Konstantinov flew to Sofia to have a new test and then back to Beijing in time to join for Bulgaria's last two group games, but was unable to prevent Bulgaria from losing to bogey team Russia in the quarterfinals.

Initiated by private broadcaster Darik Radio, the informal competition is based on the nominations sent by 200 journalists. Since 2001, when the online competition was held for the first time, this year marked the highest participation with close to 20 000 Bulgarians casting their vote.

For the first time since 1994, no politician has found place in the shortlisted nominees. However, as if to compensate this, Meglena Plougchieva, Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister for EU Funds Management, was among the nominated as some people thought that she often behaved in a more masculine manner than most men did.

On December 2 2008, during a special ceremony, the winner will be awarded a unique sword and a bottle of Jonnie Walker Blue Label whisky.