Hristo Stoichkov: Barcelona's First Ballon d'Or Winner in a Generation
For six months, Hristo Stoichkov didn’t even tell his own family that he had agreed a pre-contract deal to join Barcelona, desperate not to risk jinxing the dream move of a life-time.
Having signed the deal at the end of 1989, he finally felt comfortable enough to spill the beans to his nearest and dearest in May 1990 when the news was made public.
One of the best ways to secure a high profile transfer to a big club is to perform well against them, proving beyond doubt you can play at their level.
Stoichkov thinks that was a significant part of it when he made the switch to Camp Nou, having scored three times against Barcelona for CSKA Sofia in a two-legged UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final in April 1989. CSKA lost the tie 6-3 on aggregate and Barça went on to lift the trophy, but they couldn’t ignore what this emerging Bulgarian superstar had done to them.
Although not blessed with great height, Stoichkov was an incredibly powerful physical specimen, possessing great pace and tenacity, as well as a deadly eye for goal. His vision, creativity and football intelligence also made him a fine strike partner.
Barcelona were a club in crisis in 1988 when legendary former player Johan Cruyff was appointed head coach. Despite winning the Copa del Rey, they had just finished sixth in La Liga, a lowest league placing since the early 1960s, while there was a toxic atmosphere.
Cruyff changed all that, kicking off the ‘Dream Team’ era that was built on the youth academy he himself had helped create a decade earlier. A core of home-grown talents schooled in the Barcelona way, influenced by the Dutch Total Football of the 1970s, was perfectly supplemented with domestic signings and top foreign imports like Stoichkov, Michael Laudrup, Ronald Koeman and later Romario.
By the spring of 1990, Stoichkov was a must-have new talent upon scoring 38 times for CSKA Sofia in the Bulgarian league and sharing the European Golden Shoe with Real Madrid star Hugo Sanchez. Thankfully for Barcelona, they had already secured his signature.
He was never expected to be as prolific in a higher quality Spanish league, but his impact on a developing Barcelona side featuring the likes of Albert Ferrer and Josep Guardiola was instantly felt.
In Stoichkov’s first season, Barcelona were crowned La Liga champions for only the second time since Cruyff himself was in the team in the early 1970s. He was club top scorer with 14 goals in La Liga, 22 in all competitions, beginning a period of domination and remarkable consistency.
Barça won four La Liga titles in Stoichkov’s first four years as the ‘Dream Team’ Cruyff built from 1988 onwards exerted its control over Spain and into Europe. Stoichkov never scored fewer than 22 goals in all competitions in any of those four years, peaking at 24 in 1993/94.
His partnership with Romario, who arrived at Camp Nou from PSV Eindhoven in 1993, was particularly devastating. Between them, the pair netted 46 times in La Liga alone in 1993/94, which was to be their only full season together before the Brazilian returned to South America.
That first La Liga title in 1991 had also meant a return to the European Cup for the following season. Stoichkov scored four times en-route to the final, Barça’s top scorer in the competition, while it was Koeman who got the famous winner against Sampdoria at Wembley. Barcelona’s first European title.
He later got seven in the newly re-branded Champions League as Barcelona returned to a second final in the space of three years in 1994. AC Milan prevailed in that contest in one of the most accomplished single performances in European football history, but Stoichkov, very much at his peak, went on to share the Golden Shoe at the World Cup that summer.
Bulgaria went all the way to the semi-finals at the 1994 tournament, an achievement they have never been close to matching before or since. Coupled with his incredible season for Barcelona, Stoichkov was awarded the Ballon d’Or. He had been runner-up in 1992 and it made him the first Barça winner since Cruyff in 1974, as well as the first and still only Bulgarian recipient.
Stoichkov is under no illusions over how much he owes Cruyff.
“The first thing that I have to be thankful is that he had confidence in me and that he backed me,” the now 54-year-old said of his former coach and mentor in 2020.
“When I had just touched down in Barcelona, I remember he said to me, ‘Listen, I will work with you until you win the Ballon d'Or.’ At that time, I was just a little-known kid and for Cruyff to say that to me was great motivation.
“Later, on innumerable occasions, he used to say things to rub me up the wrong way, and at the end of the day, fuelled my desire to go out and win. Johan was a great motivator and he did a lot of things for me and my family and I will be eternally grateful.”
At 29, Stoichkov left Barcelona for Parma in 1995, a decision he looks back on as the ‘worst’ of his entire career and one that he still regrets today. His goal output had dropped below 20 for the first time the previous season, but his record in Italy was worse.
It paved the way for a return to Camp Nou just 12 months on and close to two more seasons, although by then he was ageing and playing second fiddle to Ronaldo. But it takes nothing away from that glorious first spell as the crown jewel of the ‘Dream Team’.
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