Emil Lubtchov Kostadinov ( bg, Емил Любчов Костадинов; born 12 August 1967) is a Bulgarian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

and represented the Bulgaria national team at two

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

Club career

Born in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

, Kostadinov started his career in

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

. There he formed a redoubtable trio with

Hristo Stoichkov Hristo Stoichkov Stoichkov ( bg, Христо Стоичков Стоичков, ; born 8 February 1966) is a Bulgarian former professional Association football, footballer who is a football commentator for TUDN. A prolific Forward (association ...

and

Luboslav Penev Lyuboslav Mladenov Penev ( bg, Любослав Младенов Пенев; born 31 August 1966) is a Bulgarian professional football manager and former player. Penev played as a forward for several clubs in Bulgaria and Spain. He started h ...

in the late 1980s, helping the team to win three times the

Bulgarian Championship The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

title, three times the

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup ( bg, Купа на България, Kupa na Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournament ...

and reached the semi-final of the

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

. He played for

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

from 1990 to 1994, winning the Portuguese league twice, and becoming popular among Portuguese fans. He also played for

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. They currently p ...

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

(winning the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

with them in 1996 and scoring in the final itself), Fenerbahçe,

Mainz 05 1. Fußball- und Sportverein Mainz 05 e. V., usually shortened to 1. FSV Mainz 05, Mainz 05 () or simply Mainz (), is a German sports club, founded in 1905 and based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. 1. FSV Mainz 05 play in the Bundesliga, the top ...

, and

UANL Tigres Club de Fútbol Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, simply known as Tigres UANL or Tigres, is a Mexican professional football club based in San Nicolás de los Garza, a city in the Monterrey metropolitan area, Nuevo León. Found ...

International career

Kostadinov played in the

1985 FIFA World Youth Championship The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

scoring two goals. He was a member of the Bulgaria national team from 1988 to 1998. He earned 70

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

in which he scored 27 goals. Kostadinov gained international prominence after scoring two goals in the last matchday of the European

1994 World Cup qualification File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, against the French national team. He scored his second goal in the last second of the match with a shot with his right foot from inside the French penalty area that sent the ball into the roof of the net. That match-winning goal enabled

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

to qualify for the 1994 World Cup finals at the expense of France. After helping Bulgaria qualify for the

1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the countr ...

, he was a part of the squad that reached the semi-finals in the finals tournament, again in partnership with

. He played all seven games but did not score. During the game against Italy in the semi-final, Kostadinov was fouled by

Alessandro Costacurta Alessandro Costacurta (born 24 April 1966) is an Italian football pundit, manager and a former professional defender, who usually played as a centre back. Throughout his club career, Costacurta spent over twenty years with AC Milan between 19 ...

in the penalty area, who later committed a handball offence there as well. Both actions were not given penalties, which sparked a lot of controversy, as Bulgarians accused the French referee Joel Quiniou of purposefully ignoring the situations to get "revenge" for the decisive qualifying game between Bulgaria and France at the

Parc des Princes Parc des Princes () is an all-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Paris, France, in the south-west of the French capital, inside the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th arrondissement, near the Stade Jean-Bouin ...

, which saw the former qualifying to the World Cup at the expense of the latter. He also played at the

Euro 96 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

and the 1998 World Cup, both tournaments in which Bulgaria did not reach the second round. He scored one (and actually the only) goal in the 1998 World Cup against Spain in the group stages. He retired before the qualifying campaign for EURO 2000.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Bulgaria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kostadinov goal.''

Honours

CSKA Sofia *

Bulgarian A PFG The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

: 1986–87, 1988–89, 1989–90 *

: 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89 *

Bulgarian Supercup The Bulgarian Supercup ( bg, Суперкупа на България) is the trophy won in a football match held between the football club that has won the Bulgarian first football division in the season that ended in the year of the match and ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

Porto *

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

: 1991–92, 1992–93, 1994–95 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

: 1990–91, 1993–94 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

Bayern Munich *

: 1995–96 Bulgaria *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

: fourth place (bronze):

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kostadinov, Emil 1967 births Living people Footballers from Sofia Association football forwards Bulgarian footballers Bulgaria international footballers Bulgaria youth international footballers PFC CSKA Sofia players FC Porto players FC Bayern Munich footballers 1. FSV Mainz 05 players Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers Tigres UANL footballers Deportivo de La Coruña players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Primeira Liga players La Liga players Süper Lig players Liga MX players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players Bulgarian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Spain Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Germany Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Turkey Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Mexico UEFA Cup winning players