Soccer links between Ireland and Bulgaria go back to the very beginning. The Irish Free State’s first ever competitive match in May 1924 was against Bulgaria at the Paris Olympics.
Optimistically, the organisers allocated the game to the 45,000-capacity Stade de Colombes – only 1,659 spectators bothered showing up, including 1,137 complimentary ticket holders. Sadly, this would not be the last time that you literally could not give away tickets for an Ireland match.
The Bulgarian team wore green jerseys for the game, with Ireland playing in a blue kit. In The Irish Soccer Split, historian Cormac Moore recalls the referee observing that he had never encountered a more nervous bunch of players than the Irish, who overcame their anxiety to win 1-0.
Such bravery failed to impress The Irish Times, which reported: “On this afternoon’s display the Irishmen would stand little chance against the crack teams in the competition.”
Such pessimism proved prophetic as a 2-1 defeat to the Netherlands in the next round eliminated Ireland from the tournament.
The game against Ireland was only Bulgaria’s second ever international, coming a week after losing a friendly 6-0 to Austria during a stopover in Vienna en route to Paris.,
But despite playing in such a historic game, the Boys in Blue became the forgotten men of Irish soccer. The reason being that it took the FAI a century to recognise the game against Bulgaria as our first international match.
With impressive symmetry, in May 2024, just months before the Olympics returned to Paris, the FAI finally gave the 1924 team their proper place in Irish sporting history by reclassifying the Olympic fixtures as full internationals.
Another more nerve-racking 1-0 victory over Bulgaria 63 years later became one of the most celebrated results in Irish football history, even though Ireland didn’t actually take part in the fixture.
In October 1987, Ireland concluded their Euro ’88 qualifying campaign with a 2-0 victory over Bulgaria at Lansdowne Road, but the Bulgarians still only needed a draw against an already-eliminated Scotland in their final group game in Sofia to qualify at our expense.
Scotland had not won away for five years and Bulgaria had not lost at home for three, making the outcome such a forgone conclusion that Jack Charlton preferred to go fishing rather than watch the game, RTÉ showing remarkable foresight by broadcasting it live.
With just three minutes remaining, debutant Gary Mackay scored his only international goal after being introduced as a substitute to secure a 1-0 victory for Scotland thus seeing Ireland qualify for our first major tournament
The Bulgarian squad for this week was selected by Ilian Iliev days after he offered his resignation as manager in a row over the perceived conflict of interest created by his double jobbing, as he is also in charge of his hometown club Cherno More.
Such back room turmoil explains why Iliev is Bulgaria’s sixth manager in the last six years. Iliev included his son Ilian Iliev Jr alongside more familiar faces such as goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov (Aberdeen) and midfielders Ilia Gruev (Leeds United) and Filip Krastev (PEC Zwolle).
Their captain and best player is Kiril Despodov, who will need no introduction to Shamrock Rovers fans. In August, Despodov scored for PAOK at Tallaght Stadium to complete a 6-0 aggregate Europa League victory, having previously been part of the Ludogorets team that eliminated the Hoops from the Champions League in 2022.
In European club competitions Bulgarian teams enjoy a perfect record against League of Ireland sides, emerging victorious on each of the 10 occasions Irish and Bulgarian sides have been drawn together.
However, the most recent pairing, in the 2022 Europa Conference League, proved a real nail-biter; St Patrick’s Athletic winning 1-0 away to CSKA Sofia only to lose the return fixture 2-0 thanks to a dubious late penalty at Tallaght Stadium.
A handful of Ireland under-21 internationals have played in Bulgaria, including Cillian Sheridan and Graham Carey, who both won the Bulgarian Cup with CSKA Sofia, and Conor Henderson, who concluded his career with Pirin Blagoevgrad.
Bulgarian players Yani Georgiev and Vladislav Velikin made the reverse journey, featuring briefly in the League of Ireland for Bray Wanderers and Athlone Town respectively.
The traditional giants of Bulgarian football are CSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia, who between them have won 57 titles. The dominant team now are Ludogorets, who since their promotion to the Bulgarian top flight in 2011 have been crowned league champions 13 years in a row having never previously won the competition.
Crucial to this extraordinary transformation are Brazilian imports, such as Cicinho and Wanderson, who have secured Bulgarian citizenship.
Sourcing players from the greatest soccer nation on earth makes perfect sense but undermines a remarkable sequence of Bulgaria only selecting players whose surname ends with the letter ‘v’.
In their seven appearances at the World Cup Bulgaria have fielded 120 players with 34 more unused substitutes. Only two have had surnames not ending with a ‘v’ (Milko Gaidarski in Mexico ’70 and Petar Mikhtarski at USA ’94).
Of the 27 players included in the Bulgarian squad for their double-header against Ireland, 26 have names ending in a ‘v’, the sole exception being Hamburg-born Fabian Nürnberger.
Bulgaria qualified for this play-off by finishing second in their Nations League Group C behind Northern Ireland, who thrashed them 5-0 at Windsor Park despite only having four attempts on target.
The most recent Nations League meeting of Bulgaria and Ireland in 2020 produced a pair of bore-draws played in empty stadiums. A last-minute Shane Duffy header salvaged a 1-1 draw for Stephen Kenny in his first game as manager in Sofia followed by a 0-0 draw in the return at the Aviva Stadium.
