Football is by far the most popular
sport in the country. Many Bulgarian fans follow closely
the top Bulgarian league, the Bulgarian A Professional
Football Group, as well as the leagues of other European
countries, such as those of Spain, England, Italy and
Germany. The greatest success of the Bulgaria national
football team was fourth place at the 1994 FIFA World
Cup in the United States. Many people think the internationally
best known Bulgarian footballer is Hristo Stoichkov, who
was widely regarded as one of the world's best football
player at the peak of his career between 1992 and 1995,
while playing for FC Barcelona. Georgi Asparuhov-Gundi
(1943-1971), who died in a car accident, was also very
popular. He was chosen for Bulgarian football player ?1
for XX century. PFC CSKA Sofia (30 times champion of Bulgaria)
and PFC Levski Sofia(25 times champion of Bulgaria and
25 times holder of the National Cup) are the most successful
Bulgarian football clubs. Litex (Lovech) is the best provincial
team in the country now. PFC Levski Sofia is the first
Bulgarian team to play in the modern Champions League
(after 1989) in season 2006/2007.
Besides football, Bulgaria boasts great achievements
in other sports. Maria Gigova and Maria Petrova each
have a record of three world titles in rhythmic gymnastics.
Some other famous gymnasts include Simona Peycheva,
Neshka Robeva (a highly successful coach as well) and
Yordan Yovtchev. Bulgarians are also dominant in weightlifting,
with around 1,000 gold medals in different competitions,
and wrestling; Stefan Botev, Nickolai Peshalov, Demir
Demirev and Yoto Yotov are among the most distinguished
weightlifters and Serafim Barzakov, Armen Nazarian and
Sergey Moreyko are world-class wrestlers. Bulgarians
are also proud with the high-jump athlete Stefka Kostadinova,
who still holds the women's high jump record.
Volleyball recently marked a big resurgence. The Bulgarian
national volleyball team is one of the strongest teams
in Europe, currently ranked fifth in the FIVB ranklist.
At the 2006 Volleyball World Championship, they won
the bronze medal. Chess is also very popular and one
of the best chess-masters in the world, Veselin Topalov,
is Bulgarian. At the end of 2005 both men`s and women`s
world chess champions were from Bulgaria as well as
the junior world champion.
At the 1998 Winter Olympics, Ekaterina Dafovska won
the Olympic title from 15 km competition in biathlon
and Irina Nikulchina took a bronze medal at the same
Olympic Games. Another pride for the Bulgarian nation
in winter sports is Evgenia Radanova, who won bronze
and silver medals in the following two Olympic Games.
Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski are another example
of Bulgarian champions on the ice — this time speaking
of ice dancing and figure skating. The couple is the
reigning world champions, holding the title for both
2006 and 2007. The couple also won the ISU Grand Prix
Final in St. Petersburg at the beginning of December
2006.
Original text From Wikipedia 
