Stoichkkov: I am a marksman both with a football and hunting rifle

Interview by Tsveta Ivanova

Few people may know that the latest passion of Hristo Stoichkov, head coach of the Bulgarian national football team, is hunting. His friend Emil Dimitrov, Director of Elen game farm, helped Stoichkov discover the thrill of hunting. Thus, the mountains around Etropole have become Stoichkov's refuge from the football problems; he turned out to be a marksman not only with his left leg, but also with his left hand.

Mr. Stoichkov, what made you grab the gun and set out for the woods?

It is a public secret that after the successful performance of the Bulgarian national football team at the World Cup finals in 1994, each player was presented with a hunting rifle. But to be able to use these rifles, we first needed shooting licenses; and this was how we became hunters.

Despite the license, you discovered the hunting fever a little bit later. Who did show it to you?

Indeed, the hunting license does not make its holder a hunter. Hunting, as well as sports, requires some zest; you have to be passionate about hunting trips. At the beginning, I was not too keen on hunting. I used to go out in the woods and have a walk with a rifle on my shoulder. Emil Dimitrov, who runs a perfect game farm in the region of Etropole, showed me the magic of hunting.He is my best teacher in hunting and we also made close friends.

It turns out that football and hunting have many things in common, is it so?

Yes, it is quite so. Hunting is a team sport, as well as hunting, and the success depends on each member of the team. That is why discipline is very important.

There are great beech and oak forests in the mountains around Etropole and they are also full of many different game. Here you can see red deer, fallow deer, does, wild goats, wild boars, moufflon, wolves, foxes and wild cats. I like roaming in the wood and feast my eyes on the beauty of nature.

Have you ever been on a hunting trip abroad?

For now, I have been on a big hunt only in Austria. There, I took part in an extraordinary hunt. More than 200 wild boars were killed in only two battues. I personally killed twenty-eight. This is my biggest game.

Do you have many beautiful trophies?

Trophies are not my only goal in hunting. As I already told you, I prefer to enjoy the beauty of nature. At the beginning of 2005 I shot a very beautiful moufflon in Elen. There, I have also shot a boar, whose tusks were about twenty-four centimeters long.