Hristo Stoichkov was born in Plovdiv (Bulgaria) in 1966. He left CSKA Sofia to join Bar�a in 1990 and stayed until 1998, although for one season, 1995-96, he was at Parma in Italy.
Hristo was one of the stars of the Dream Team and one of the fans’ most popular players of the 1990s, both for his football and his extraordinary fighting spirit. He was versatile, and could play either on the left or in the middle, making him a highly efficient forward player, with great speed and a goalscoring instinct. He was considered one of the best players in the world for his time, and is the only Bar�a player to have won the European Cup (1992), the Golden Boot (1990) and the Balon d’Or (1995) 
At the 1994 World Cup, Stoichkov was awarded the World Cup Golden Boot as the joint top goal scorer of the tournament (with Oleg Salenko), with six goals, as well as earning the Bronze Ball award. He led Bulgaria past Germany to the semi-finals, where they lost 2–1 to Italy. They subsequently lost the third place play-off to Sweden, 4–0.
Bulgaria finished second in the qualifying group for Euro 1996 after the first place was taken by the eventual winners, Germany. Stoichkov scored 10 goals for his team during the qualifiers, as Bulgaria qualified as one of the best 6 runners-up. In the first match against Germany in Sofia, Bulgaria were 2–0 down at half-time. Stoichkov equalized with two goals from penalties and Emil Kostadinov also scored for a 3–2 win. Bulgaria lost the second match in Germany 3–1.
During the finals, Bulgaria lost 3–1 in the decisive group match against a very strong France side (the future World Champions); at the same time, in the other match, Spain won 2–1 late on against Romania and so the Bulgarians went out. In that tournament, Stoichkov scored 3 goals in 3 matches, and another goal against Spain was disallowed for offside, though action replays show that he was actually on-side. Stoitchkov was the only player to score from a free kick (against France) in this tournament.
He was also part of the squad that was eliminated in the first round of the 1998 World Cup. Bulgaria was not nearly as strong as in previous years, earning only one point in a 0–0 draw against Paraguay and scoring only one goal through Kostadinov in a 6–1 defeat by Spain in the so-called "Group of Death".
Stoichkov retired from internationals in 1999 with 37 goals in 83 appearances. Subsequently he was the coach of the Bulgarian national team from 2004 to April 2007.
Year | Championships | Cups | Awards | |
1987 | Champion of Bulgaria | Cup of Bulgaria | ||
1988 | Championship of Bulgaria | Cup of Bulgaria | ||
1989 | Championship of Bulgaria | Cup of Bulgraia Supercup of Bulgaria | Top Footballer of Bulgaria | |
1990 | Championship of Bulgaria | Golden Boot - Top Scorer in Europe Top Footballer of Bulgaria | ||
1991 | Championship of Spain | Supercup of Spain | Top Footballer of Bulgaria | |
1992 | Championship of Spain | European Champ Supercup of Europe | Golden Onz - France Football Magazine Silver Globe - FIFA Player of the Year | |
1993 | Championship of Spain | Top Footballer of Bulgaria Top Athlete of Bulgaria | ||
1994 | Championship of Spain | Supercup of Spain | Golden Boot - Top Scorer at World Cup 94 Golden Ball - France Football Magazine Top Athlete on the Balkan Peninsila Silver Globe - FIFA Player of the Year | |
1995 | Championship of Spain | Supercup of Spain | ||
1996 | Championship of Spain | Supercup of Spain | ||
1997 | Championship of Spain | Cup Winners Cup Royal Cup of Spain | ||
1998 | S.Arabia championship | Cup of Asia |
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