Yordan Letchkov

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Iordan Letchkov (Bulgarian: Йордан Лечков) (born in Sliven, Bulgaria, July 9, 1967) was one of the best bulgarian football players of ’90s. (Translated by Cyrillic, it sometimes could be found written also Yordan or Jordan Lechkov).

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 The Clubs 1.2 The national team 1.3 Various 2 External links

[edit] Biography

He was a polyvalent player: he played mainly as a forward and as a left lateral offensive midfielder. Easily recognizable for his baldness, he was an eclectic player but a little moody, with an essential but efficacious game. Characterized by exceptional athletic accomplishments, and for this reason superable with difficulty on the field (noted for many ball recuperations), he had excellent technical and tactical qualities too. His nicknames were "Dancho" Letchkov and "The Magician". Height: 178 cm. Weight (when he's playing): 73 kg.

[edit] The Clubs

Grown in Sliven football club (Bulgaria), afterwards he played in prestigious clubs like CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria, 1991/92 season), Hamburger SV (Germany, from 1992/93 season to 1995/96 season), Olympique de Marseille (France, 1996/97 season) Besiktas Istanbul (Turkey, from 1997/98 season) and after an inactivity break of about two years, he finished his career in 2001/02 season, again in CSKA Sofia. He was one of those talents called in Bulgaria “The Golden Generation”, that exalted the bulgarian football national team of those years. Letchkov, Stoitchkov and Balakov were the strongest.

[edit] The national team

Letchkov played 45 matches and scored 5 goals in the bulgarian national team; in a certain period of time, with other companions, he refused national team meetings because of some disagreements, some said with the football federation, others with the trainer of that time. Everyone remember his legendary head goal against Germany in the quarter-finals at Usa ’94 World Cup, that allowed Bulgaria to gain an historical semi-final (they lost against Italy for 1-2, where the bulgarians didn’t play on the basis of their possibilities): a superb goal to crown his fantastic World Cup. The same year he got a lot of preferences in order to conquer the Golden Ball, the prestigious trophy of the twice-weekly magazine France Football, assigned on the basis of the expressed votes of a jury composed by specialized journalists (one for each country affiliated to Uefa); then, that year, the trophy was won by Letchkov’s compatriot Hristo Stoitchkov. Very good and maybe also superior were Letchkov’s performances at Euro England ’96, where only the misfortune prevented the balcanic team to go to the quarter-finals (Bulgaria was eliminated because it lost the decisive match 1-3 against a very strong France, future world champion – Letchkov man of the match -, and because at the same time Spain won 2-1 on the last minutes against a feeble and strange Romania, already eliminated). Letchkov, who contributed to the qualification of his national team to France ’98 World Cup, should have taken part in the final phase of the transalpine World Cup but it wasn’t possible for a Fifa disqualification, because of some contractual non-fulfilments with Besiktas, his team of those days (the event is confused and little known, someone said he tried to get free without the society’s permission).

[edit] Various

With his possibilities and talent, he could and should have had an even better career, even if it has been bright in any case; someone said that partly he was stopped by a hard character. Many times he was about to go to some Italian clubs (for example, we remember Inter Milano in 1994 and Bologna in 1996). After he closed his football adventure, he’s begun another life as a successful businessman and a famous politician. Actually he’s owner of many important activities (luxury hotels, football school, etc.) and is the mayor of Sliven, his native city. Letchkov was elected vice president of the Bulgarian Football Union in 2005. He took part, as himself, in a Gary Lineker's Tv Series of 1998 ( directed by Lloyd Stanton) called "Golden Foots" [[1]], with other football celebrities.

	Bulgaria squad - 1994 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place
1 Mikhailov | 2 Kremenliev | 3 Ivanov | 4 Tsvetanov | 5 Houbchev | 6 Yankov | 7 Kostadinov | 8 Stoichkov | 9 Letchkov | 10 Sirakov | 11 Borimirov | 12 Nikolov | 13 Yordanov | 14 Guentchev | 15 Iliev | 16 Kiriakov | 17 Mihtarski | 18 Aleksandrov | 19 Georgiev | 20 Balakov | 21 Yotov | 22 Andonov | Coach: Penev

Template:Bulgaria Squad 1996 European Cup

[edit] External links

• CSKA Sofia Official Website [2]
• Hamburger SV Official Website [3]
• Olympique de Marseille Official Website [4]
• Besiktas Istanbul Official Website [5]