Famous Bulgarians

[DiegoFulham]

Dimitar Berbatov the PL great, Alexander the Great, Spartacus....


Can anyone think of anyone else? dbf

[ffcbulgaria]

Dimitar Berbatov the PL great, Alexander the Great, Spartacus....


Can anyone think of anyone else? dbf

Last 2 were born a few hundred years before Bulgaria existed or at least long before the people known as bulgarians moved from the caucasian region to the Balkans.
The latter is supposed to have thracian origins and yes the bulgarian tribes did mix with the thracians and the slavic inhabiting the balkans but I don't think there'll be a single historian anywhere who would claim Spartacus or Alexander were indeed bulgarian.

[King_Crud]

Uncle Bulgaria

[costarican white]

Define famous, I have a very popular bulgarian-costa rican friend because there are not too many of them here :)

[LBNo11]

...Martin Petrov..!

[ffcbulgaria]

Stoichkov - golden boot of the '94 World Cup, european Golden Ball winner the same year, 100+ goals for Barcelona :0

[costarican white]

Stoichkov - golden boot of the '94 World Cup, european Golden Ball winner the same year, 100+ goals for Barcelona :0

Class player, my best memory of him is in USA 94, great WC for you guys, great team as well

[HatterDon]

Dimitar Berbatov the PL great, Alexander the Great, Spartacus....


Can anyone think of anyone else? dbf

Last 2 were born a few hundred years before Bulgaria existed or at least long before the people known as bulgarians moved from the caucasian region to the Balkans.
The latter is supposed to have thracian origins and yes the bulgarian tribes did mix with the thracians and the slavic inhabiting the balkans but I don't think there'll be a single historian anywhere who would claim Spartacus or Alexander were indeed bulgarian.

Best claim for Alexander is Macedonia, sort of part of Greece historically.

Wasn't there a Bulgarian Cosmonaut that garnered a lot of headlines last century?

[jazz hardrockin]

They are 2 Bulgarian cosmonauts ,one of them almost lost his life on re-entry and this thread is ridiculous to put it softly.

[Count Berbatov]

John Atanasoff. The father of the modern computers

[cmg]

Stoichkov - golden boot of the '94 World Cup, european Golden Ball winner the same year, 100+ goals for Barcelona :0

Hristo Stoichkov, still a legendry figure in Barcelona, was one of the finest players I ever saw.

To complete the triumvirate of top Bulgarian footballers, I am old enough to remember Georgi Asparuhov who never played club football outside Bulgaria and died in a car crash while still at his peak. While checking him out on the internet I found that, when he turned down a move to Milan he said,  "There is a country called Bulgaria. And there's a Bulgarian team, called Levski. You may've not heard of it. But I'm born in this team, and in this team I will die!" Isn't that rather wonderful (and sad, because it was true)? No wonder they named the stadium after him.

[The phenomenon]

I will tell you about the football stars of Bulgaria.
Hristo Stoichkov-World cup'94 golden boot winner.Golden ball winner 1994.At top 20 best players of Barcelona for all times
Dimitar Berbatov-I think you know everything about him.The best goalscorer for the national team of Bulgaria with  48 goals for 77 games.Seven times(record) number one football player of Bulgaria.The man is a legend  dbf
Krasimir Balakov-The best player of VfB Stuttgard for all times(official).At top 10 best players of Porto FC.
Luboslav Penev-Goalscorer and champion of Spain 1995-96 with Atletico Madrid
Stiliyan Petrov-Captain of Aston Villa.Now he is fighting with leuqemia and whole Bulgaria is praying for him.Support Stan 19
Martin Petrov-Wolfsburg,Atletico Madrid,Manchester City,Bolton
Valeri Bojinov-Lecce,Fiorentina,Juventus,Manchester City,Parma,Sporting Lisabon,Verona and he is only 26 years old :005:
There are many more players, played in big football clubs like Bayern Munich,Hamburger,Valencia,Porto,Sporting,Benfica and others.

[Travers Barney]

Met two Bulgarian Fulham (Vesko and Vlady) over in Sofia...invited them to stay with a pal  and me for a couple of days....we spent the weekend in the Beatty and the Motspur Tandoori...they loved it.....took them them to see Leatherhead play on the Saturday and then it was us v the Blue Mancs on the Sunday...the liver took a bit of punishment that weekend I can tell you....guess they were famous in Motspur Park that weekend.....there back for the Sunderland home game in November....I'm sure they'd like to meet a few friends of fulham members...i'll bump it up then.

coyw

[BestOfBrede]

They are 2 Bulgarian cosmonauts ,one of them almost lost his life on re-entry and this thread is ridiculous to put it softly.

I nearly lost my life on re-entry once. The Husband came home early!

[farfouille]

In terms of popularity, not in terms of achievements (which means I am excluding Bulgaria's greatest authors, monarchs and visual artists), my personal list is:

1.   Hristo Stoichkov - 1994 FIFA World Cup top scorer and winner of the Golden Shoe and the Golden Ball
2.   Dimitar Berbatov - currently the most beloved and (unfortunately) the most criticized Bulgarian football player
3.   Nina Dobrev - Bulgarian-Canadian actress, stars in the TV series "The Vampire Diaries"
4.   John Atanasoff - Bulgarian-American physicist, inventor of the computer
5.   Ivet Lalova - the fastest white woman at 100 metres
6.   Stefka Kostadinova - World Record holder and 2 World Titles High Jump (1987, 1995)
7.   Stiliyan Petrov - former captain of Aston Villa and the Bulgarian National team
8.   Kaloyan Mahlyanov - the only European sumo wrestler who is winner of the Emperor's Cup
9.   Yordan Yovchev - world champion and six-time Olympic gymnast
10.   Veselin Topalov - World Chess Champion (men, 2005)

P.S. I am really happy to be here – I am a Fulham fan since the 31st of August 2012 (Berbatov was the factor, not the reason), yet I have the feeling that I am already the biggest fan of the Club! COYWs!!!

[berbafan]

The best Bulgarian footballer of all time, by a very large margin - was Gundi (also #9).  He was also the most beloved Bulgarian athlete ever - when he died in 1971, 10% of the Bulgarian populace - thats right 10%! - went to his funeral!

Eternal Gundi - Georgi Asparuhov

[F(f)CUK]

I went to Bulgaria a few times approx 5 years ago with work. The one person that stood out was a bald TV presenter along the lines of Letterman. No idea who he was, but someone in a restaurant I went to was a guest on his show and insisted that TVs were tuned into it so that he could watch himself.

[farfouille]

The one person that stood out was a bald TV presenter...

If you were looking for someone to impress you in Bulgaria, you should have known that the outstanding Bulgarians were in England... :P

[ALFI]

The best Bulgarian footballer of all time, by a very large margin - was Gundi (also #9).  He was also the most beloved Bulgarian athlete ever - when he died in 1971, 10% of the Bulgarian populace - thats right 10%! - went to his funeral!

OMG!!!
I bet you are "Levski" fan.
To place Gundi in front of Stoichkov(and even some others) is really funny. Not to mention the  "even by a large margin"... haha
I could give you enough arguments for better players even in his generation, but that's another story.

I don't want to start CSKA vs Levski debate here but let's not send false statements/info to the others.

[farfouille]

I don't want to start CSKA vs Levski debate here...

Yes, please don't.
Anyway, the topic was "who are the famous Bulgarians?". And I assume we are talking about present days, not the 60s.
I am sure Gundi is as famous in this forum as Slavi, the "bald presenter".