Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Bulgaria and Bulgaria's greatest achievement in this sport is the 4th place in the World Football Championship held in the USA in 1994. Hristo Stoichkov - the most popular Bulgarian football player earned world fame during the several seasons he spent in Spain's team of Barcelona, after this in Japan and USA, and later (until April 2007) a coach of National football team of Bulgaria.
Dimitar Berbatov is the most expensive and most successful Bulgarian football player in history after his transfers in Tottenham Hotspur (July 2006) and in Manchester United for £30.75 million (September 2008). Berbatov's career began in the Pirin Blagoevgrad Football club, then he completed a move in the Bulgarian A PFG as a sriker in CSKA Sofia and won the Bulgarian National Cup in 1999. After this Dimitar Berbatov joined Bayer Leverkusen and played in the Bundesliga until Aug 2008.
Bulgaria has also good athletes, wrestlers, rhythmic gymnasts, rowers, weight lifters (the Bulgarian school in these disciplines is renowned), tennis players like the Maleev sisters and the young charming talent Grigor Dimitrov.
In 2008, Grigor became Junior Tennis Champion at the Wimbledon boys singles after defeating Henri Kontinen from Finland. His victory guarantees him a wildcard entry into the 2009 Wimbledon Gentlemen's Draw. The same year, Dimitrov won a second consecutive junior Grand Slam tournament by clinching the US Open boys' title on 7 September and became No. 1 Junior tennis player in the world.
Born in Bulgaria was the wrestler Dan Koloff, famous in USA in the begining of the 20th century - in the time of silent films when catch was a show.
Kaloyan Mahlyanov is a famous sumo wrestler who lives in Japan and wrestles under the name Kotooshu. Mahlyanov is often regarded as "Bulgaria's most famous export after yoghurt". The wrestler competed in the Second Spring Osaka Grand Sumo Tournament, winning the prestigious Emperor's Cup.
Mahlyanov is considered as the first European to enter the Japanese Sumo elite - the sanyaki ranks.
Bulgaria has great chess players. The current (year 2005) world champion for man is Vesselin Topalov and current (year 2004) Women's World Champion is Antoaneta Stefanova.
Major recent Bulgarian achievements in ice dancing are already a fact - silver medals from the latest European Figure Skating Championships.
In the World Figure Skating Championships 2007, the
Bulgaria's figure skating dance couple Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski became the new world champions.
The duo defended their title for the second time at the World Championship in Japan, performing a dance to remember in the third stage of the competition.
Rumyana Neykova is the most famous bulgarian rower. She won her first medal at the 1999 world championships in Canada in single sculls discipline. She has two world titles in that discipline at Sevilla 2002 and Milan 2003, as well as being world second in 2007 in Gifu.
Neykova competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics, the 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sidney where she won silver in single sculls, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where she won bronze. Her current coach is her husband Svilen Neykov.
In 2002, she was named Bulgarian sportswoman of the Year, as well as FISA Female Power of the Year.
Neykova finally won her first Olympic title at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, beating Michelle Guerette of the United Sates.
Orient Travel is able to provide your sports team with a wide range of services to best suite your training program.
We provide full logistical support and advice on sport facilities options throughout Bulgaria. We are also able to arrange a friendly game with local Bulgarian teams of almost any sport.
For example, if you plan training camps of football teams in Bulgaria. We can arrange a hotel with football grounds to accommodate 3 or 4 teams for 3 weeks in July at:
PRAVETS PALACE Hotel - 4 stars or
CITY UNIVERSITY Hotel - 3 stars
both located in the town of Pravets - 60 km North-east of Sofia.
PRAVETS PALACE Hotel - Prices:
Players - 48 EUR per person in DBL/TRPL room
Coaches - 54 EUR per person in SGL room
City University Hotel - Prices:
Players - 44 EUR per person in DBL/TRPL room
Coaches - 48 EUR per person in SGL room
Prices above include:
2 trainings per day, 1 and half hours per training session apprx.; every day.
Full board basis including orange juice (tetrapack) with the meals.
Sports facilities: gym, sauna, outdoor swimming pool, 3 football grounds.
Transportation from airport to hotel and back.
Laundry of players/coaches - uniforms ONLY - every day
Mineral water for training sessions
Prices for friendly games: 120 EUR per friendly game with referees
Please note that summer is very busy time for such programs and Pravets is very popular for this so the earlier you book the better.
Yes, we are able to provide such services for you in Bulgaria, but in order to provide you with a detailed program/offer that would suit your specific needs, we would require some additional information from you like:
1. Approximately what is the size of each team - number of people - players, coaches, managers, etc? Age of sportsmen?
2. How many sport (football) fields daily do you require?
3. How many hours per day do you need to use these grounds (in the morning/afternoon)?
4. How many days per week and which days?
5. What category hotel do you prefer? Type of rooms - Double, Triple?
6. How many meals per day? Special diet?
7. Do you require bus transportation during your stay?
8. Would you like us to arrange a friendly match with Bulgarian team?
9. Anything else you may need?
Please be assured that we will do our best to suite your requirements.
Please contact us should you require information on a specific sport and we will be happy to assist you in any way possible.
