Krassimir Balakov

Krassimir Balakov
Krassimir Balakov (2015)
Personnel
Surname	Krassimir Gentschew Balakov
birthday	March 29, 1966
place of birth	Veliko Tarnovo ,  Bulgaria
size	176 cm
position	midfield player
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1982-1990	FK Etar Veliko Tarnovo	142 (35)
1991-1995	Sporting Lisbon	138 (43)
1995-2003	VfB Stuttgart	236 (54)
2005	VFC Plauen	1 0(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1988-2003	Bulgaria	92 (16)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
2003-2005	VfB Stuttgart (assistant coach)
2006-2007	Grasshopper Club Zurich
2007-2008	FC St. Gallen
2009-2010	FC Chernomorets Burgas
2011–2012	Hajduk Split
2012	1. FC Kaiserslautern
2014-2015	Litex Lovech
2018-2019	SFC Etar Veliko Tarnovo
2019	Bulgaria
1 Only league games are given.

Krassimir Gentschew Balakow ( Bulgarian Красимир Генчев Балъков , English transcription: Krasimir Balakov ; born March 29, 1966 in Veliko Tarnowo , Bulgaria ) is a Bulgarian football coach and former player. He scored 16 goals in 92 international matches for the Bulgarian national soccer team . He took part in the 1994 World Cup in the United States , where the national team achieved the greatest success in Bulgarian football with fourth place. After retiring from his career, he worked as the chief coach in Switzerland , Bulgaria, Croatia and Germany, and most recently in the Bulgarian national team.

Player career

Breakthrough in Bulgaria and rise to star in Portugal

Balakow comes from the youth of Etar Veliko Tarnowo . His extraordinary talent was discovered early on, so that he made his debut in the Bulgarian top division in 1982 at the age of 16. After two seasons as a supplementary player, he made the breakthrough, as a winger on the left wing was in the season 1984/85 in all league games on the field. However, a serious injury initially slowed him down and he was forced to take a long break. After his recovery he fought his way back to his regular position and returned to his old strength. He also played his way into the Bulgarian national team , for which he made his debut in autumn 1988.

With Balakow as the driver, Etar Veliko Tarnowo - previously placed regularly in the middle and rear of the table - moved within reach of the European Cup ranks and took third place in the Bulgarian championship in 1989 and 1990. In the national team, too, he established himself as a regular alongside players such as Christo Stoitschkow , Jordan Letschkow , Nasko Sirakow and Emil Kostadinow . With this he aroused the desires of the top clubs in his home country, but in the wake of the upheaval in Bulgaria in 1990, a move to CSKA Sofia did not materialize.

Shortly after the beginning of the first half of the 1990/91 season Balakov received the clearance of his club for a move to Western Europe and followed the offer of the Portuguese club Sporting Lisbon . While his home club won the Bulgarian league title for the first time at the end of the season, he reached the UEFA Cup at the side of Luís Figo , Fernando Gomes and Luizinho as third in the Portuguese league . In Lisbon, the Bulgarian quickly became a crowd favorite and became one of the best players in the Portuguese championship. In the meantime, tactically positioned differently and, as a midfield director, moved into the control center on the field, he designed the club's game.

Balakov also became a game designer in the national team. In the qualification for the World Cup finals, he surprisingly reached second place in qualifying group 6 behind Sweden as a regular with the selection supervised by coach Dimitar Penew . In the last group game, the team defeated the French team in a direct duel, which would have been enough with a draw, away with a 2-1 win after two goals from Kostadinow. Balakov had prepared the goal for the interim 1: 1 break as a corner kick. At the tournament, the selection only played an outsider role when it was drawn into a group with Nigeria , Argentina and Greece . A 3-0 defeat against Nigeria was followed by a 4-0 victory over Greece. Then the selection made people sit up and take notice, the reigning vice world champion Argentina was pushed from second place in the table with a 2-0 win. The spectators finally got to see an unsightly game in the round of 16 when the duel against Mexico went to penalties . There Balakow failed as the first Bulgarian shooter, after three misses on the part of the Central Americans, the missed penalty was without consequences. After a 2-1 victory over Germany , the team failed in the semi-finals against Italy for the outstanding Roberto Baggio , who crowned his performance with two goals. A seemingly listless Bulgarian national team went down in the game for third place with a 4-0 defeat against Sweden; Even in the seventh game of the tournament Balakow remained without a goal. Nevertheless, he was chosen as one of the most noticeable figures in the World Cup All-Star Team. In addition, at the end of the year he achieved good rankings in the elections for FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d'Or for Europe's Footballer of the Year, when he found himself among the top twenty selected players.

Balakov seemed to have brought the momentum of the World Cup with him to the Portuguese championship. As a driving force, he led the Sporting team, coached by Carlos Queiroz and assistant coach José Mourinho , to 22 wins this season. With the runner-up behind FC Porto , he achieved his best result of the season in Portugal, and he also moved into the final of the national cup with the club. Against Marítimo Funchal , he won his first title with a 2-0 win. However, there were increasing problems with the coach, which ultimately led to a separation from the club.

World-class soccer player and “moody diva” in Germany

In summer 1995 Balakow moved to the Bundesliga , VfB Stuttgart transferred the equivalent of two million euros to the Portuguese club. After winning the championship in 1992, the Swabian club slipped into the midfield of the league and tried to start over. To this end, he had hired a new coach at the start of the season, the Austrian Rolf Fringer , who had been successful with an offensive style of play with FC Aarau in Switzerland and had led the club to a championship title in 1993. Behind the storm duo Giovane Élber and Fredi Bobič , he established himself as the linchpin of the offensive game. Speaking Portuguese with the Brazilian and Croatian with the German-Croatian, he quickly integrated himself into his new club. Due to a lack of consistency, the club still only reached tenth place in the table.

In the summer Balakov took part with the national team in the 1996 European Championship , after qualifying behind Germany - Bulgaria won the first duel with a 3-2 win, so that they were at least one of the teams before the second leg on the last match day the best runners-up in the group was qualified and the 1: 3 defeat was only decisive for the final ranking - the second place in the table was occupied. In the tournament in all three games in action, the team finished third in the group with France, Spain and Romania and was eliminated at the end of the preliminary round.

The early elimination of the Swiss “Nati” also had an impact on Balakov's further career: after the selection coach Artur Jorge was heavily criticized after the tournament, he decided to resign. The name Fringer quickly came up as a successor and given the passable preseason, after short negotiations, VfB Stuttgart gave the coach the approval for the Swiss association. Shortly before the start of the season without a coach, Fringer's previous assistant Joachim Löw was chosen as his interim successor. The offensive trio proved to be a dangerous goal and was soon given the nickname "Magical Triangle". With 78 goals this season, the club had scored the most goals of all Bundesliga clubs at the end of the season, Balakow had contributed 13 goals this season. However, since the balance between offensive and defensive was not right in all games, the club only reached fourth place in the table. Nevertheless, the season was not without a title win, with a 2-0 final win in the DFB Cup over the third division Energie Cottbus Balakow won a cup title for the second time in his career.

Elber had left the club after winning the Cup, Jonathan Akpoborie was his successor at Bobič's side. The new trio was also successful, the fourth place in the table from the previous year was repeated. The team coached by Löw was also successful in the 1997/98 European Cup Winners' Cup , with Balakow scoring two goals on the way to the final. In Solna's Råsundastadion he met the English representative FC Chelsea on the side of Thomas Schneider , Thomas Berthold , Zvonimir Soldo and Gerhard Poschner . A goal from Gianfranco Zola decided the game in favor of the opponent. In the spring, meanwhile, the first disagreements arose when Balakov flirted with a farewell in the summer after a series of defeats, while at the same time it came out that he had extended his contract in December on far better terms. A few months later, he was accused of slapping a newspaper journalist. The reported complaint was dropped again, meanwhile his image had changed to the bad boy.

At the 1998 World Cup , to which the team had sovereignly qualified as group winners ahead of Russia , the Bulgarian team, including Balakov, played relatively uninspired, with the result that they were eliminated from the bottom of the group. The situation for the player is also getting worse at club level. After Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder had signed Winfried Schäfer , who had been dismissed from Karlsruher SC , as the new coach despite the boom under Löw , he clashed with the star player and the power struggle was spread in the press. There was no success under the new coach, even under the successors Wolfgang Rolff and Rainer Adrion the team remained in the relegation battle. Balakow weakened the team when he was suspended for several weeks after the game against SC Freiburg after an assault based on TV evidence - the referee had not seen his knee kick in the abdomen of an opponent. It was only under Ralf Rangnick that the team stabilized and reached eleventh place in the table. He had made him captain of the team , but after a substitution Balakov showed himself to be a diva as he was no longer given any special treatment. The relationship deteriorated increasingly, especially since the tactical system envisaged by Rangnick curtailed Balakov's playful freedom.

Only after Rangnick's dismissal did Balakow regain his special status under Felix Magath . As a result, he returned to his old form and was instrumental in ensuring that the Stuttgart club held the class in 2001. Also in the following season he was the driving force in midfield with captain Zvonimir Soldo . His expiring contract was then extended again, and in the summer of 2003 he ended his active career with the runner-up. He had already played his last international match in April, but after 1998 he had not been able to qualify for any tournament with the national team.

Coaching career

Assistant trainer at VfB Stuttgart

Balakow remained loyal to VfB Stuttgart after the end of his professional playing career and signed a two-year contract as a coach assistant and club representative. Even after Magath's departure to FC Bayern Munich in the summer of 2004 , he remained in this position under the new coach Matthias Sammer . When the contract expired in 2005, he was looking for a new challenge, but turned down an offer to take over the Bulgarian national team. However, he initially received no offer from a club, only VFC Plauen hired him as a consultant. For the club he jumped in as a player for a short time, but this was a one-time commitment.

Entry into the head coaching career in Switzerland

In January 2006, inherited Balakov at Grasshopper Club Zurich brokered by Karl-Heinz Riedle to the 1. FC Köln poached Hanspeter Latour . At the end of the season he finished fourth with the club. At the beginning of the 2006/07 season temporarily leaders, so that the club extended the contract prematurely until 2008, the slump came in the winter and the club management initially agreed to dissolve the contract at the end of the season. After a series of defeats, however, he was released three game days before the end.

On October 29, 2007 he took over the coaching position at FC St. Gallen , replacing the dismissed Fringer. However, the former world-class footballer did not succeed in preventing the oldest club in Switzerland from relegating to the Challenge League. In the Barrage games, the team failed after a draw and a defeat at AC Bellinzona . The club's management reacted to this fact by releasing Balakov.

Trainers in Burgas and Split

On January 5, 2009 Balakow took over the Bulgarian first division club FC Chernomorets Burgas for the planned period of five years. In the 2010/11 season Chernomorets was able to win in the first half of the season against all clubs from Sofia ( CSKA , Levski , Slavia and Lokomotiv ), only the newly promoted Akademik Sofia could secure a point. During the winter break of 2010/11, Chernomorets was in 3rd place with 28 points and only one defeat. On December 7, 2010, however, the contract was terminated because Balakov did not get the funds for a five-year plan to build the club as desired. After six months without a club, he joined the Croatian club Hajduk Split in the summer of 2011 .

Trainer in Kaiserslautern

On March 22, 2012, Krassimir Balakow moved to 1. FC Kaiserslautern, after his contract with Hajduk Split had been terminated by mutual agreement. On May 18, 2012, the FCK reached an agreement with Balakov on amicable termination of the employment contract, which originally ran until the end of June 2013. Under his leadership at FCK, the team lost seven out of eight games and relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga at the end of the season .

Litex Lovech

On May 27, 2014 Balakov signed a two-year contract with Litex Lovetsch starting in the 2014/15 season , and in July 2015 he resigned after the team's elimination in the first qualifying round for the Europa League against FK Jelgava .

Balakow as a trainer (2014)

SFC Etar Veliko Tarnovo

On January 4, 2018, he was introduced as the new coach of the Bulgarian second division side.

Head coach of Bulgaria

In May 2019, the Bulgarian Football Association introduced Balakov as the new head coach of the Bulgarian national team . His engagement began in 2019 with two defeats in the European Championship qualification against the Czech Republic and Kosovo on June 7th and 10th.

Four days after the qualifier against England , in which several dark-skinned England players were insulted by Bulgarian fans, Balakov resigned as national coach on October 18, 2019. He himself justified this decision with his "moral responsibility", while the leadership of the association , who also resigned as a whole , spoke of the team's "disappointing performance" recently.

Others

Balakov's family lives in Bulgaria in the small village of Hotnitza near Veliko Tarnovo and Pavlikeni.

Krassimir Balakow is a member of the Presidium of the Youth Football Foundation, which aims to bring the game of football closer to children and young people.

successes

• 4th place with Bulgaria at the 1994 World Cup
• Portuguese Cup Winner : 1995
• German cup winner : 1997
• UEFA Intertoto Cup : 2000, 2002
• Footballer of the Year in Bulgaria : 1995, 1997
• Classification as world class in the ranking of German football : Winter 1997/98

Web links

• Krassimir Balakow in the database of fussballdaten.de
• Krassimir Balakow in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Balakov new trainer in Burgas
2. ↑ Press release ( Memento of the original dated November 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of FC Chernomorets Burgas 
3. ↑ spox.com: "Krassimir Balakow becomes a trainer at Hajduk Split" (accessed July 1, 2011)
4. ^ 1. FC Kaiserslautern eV (ed.): Krassimir Balakov new FCK head coach. (No longer available online.) In: 1. FC Kaiserslautern. March 22, 2012, formerly in the original ; accessed on May 4, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
5. ↑ FCK separates from Krassimir Balakov ( Memento from August 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
6. ^ "Chaos in the Palatinate: Lautern coach Balakow released after 57 days" (accessed on June 9, 2013)
7. ↑ Football: Krasimir Balakow new coach of Litex Lovetsch. In: tt.com. May 27, 2014, accessed March 8, 2020 . 
8. ↑ Balakov resigned as trainer of Litex Lovech. In: wz.de. July 10, 2015, accessed October 8, 2017 . 
9. ↑ Революция в Търново: Балъков е новият мениджър на Етър, Генчев остава, Деко е аут (видео). In: sportal.bg. Retrieved February 7, 2018 (Bulgarian). 
10. ↑ After scandal: Balakov resigns , sport1.de, accessed on October 18, 2019