When football fans think of Bulgaria’s national team, it is often the names Dimitar Berbatov, Krasimir Balakov, and Hristo Stoichkov that come to mind.
Berbatov, who twice won the English Premier League with Manchester United and also played for clubs like Tottenham Hotspur and Bayer Leverkusen, remains Bulgaria’s record scorer with 48 international goals.
Balakov is best known for his time at VfB Stuttgart in the German Bundesliga, while Stoichkov remains the only Bulgarian to have won the Ballon d’Or, claiming the award in 1994 as a Barcelona player.
That same year, Stoichkov led Bulgaria’s midfield to the semi-finals at the World Cup in the United States, famously knocking out reigning world champions Germany along the way. The "Lions", as the Bulgarian team is known, have qualified for the World Cup a total of seven times.
Bulgaria has also made two appearances at the European Championship, most recently in 2004 in Portugal, where they were eliminated in the group stage.
However, the glory days are now well behind them. Bulgaria currently sits 85th in the FIFA world rankings, just 14 places ahead of Luxembourg.
In recent editions of the Nations League, Bulgaria has mainly competed in League C, with a brief stint in League B during the 2020/21 campaign.
More recently, Bulgaria found itself in the same Nations League group as Luxembourg. In the 2024/25 season, Bulgaria qualified for the play-offs as runners-up, but lost both matches to Ireland
Since September last year, Aleksandar Dimitrov has been at the helm as Bulgaria’s national coach. The 50-year-old has overseen eight matches so far, recording four defeats, one draw, and three victories, including a notable win over Georgia in World Cup qualifying, a group that also included Spain and Turkey.
Today’s Bulgarian standouts are no longer Berbatov, Balakov, or Stoichkov, but rather players like Ilia Gruev and Lukas Petkov.
Gruev, a key midfielder for Dimitrov’s squad, has played for Leeds United in the English Premier League since 2023, after making 33 Bundesliga appearances for Werder Bremen.
Lukas Petkov, a 25-year-old striker, joined newly promoted SV Elversberg in 2024, where he has worked alongside Luxembourg’s assistant coach Raphael Duarte.
This season, Petkov has scored once and provided one assist in four matches in Germany’s top division, having previously played for FC Augsburg and Greuther Fürth.
One player Luxembourg’s Enes Mahmutovic and Dirk Carlson know well is Ivan Turitsov, who plays alongside them at Dinamo Batumi in Georgia’s top league. The three could face off on Saturday at the Hristo Botev Stadium in Plovdiv.
Bulgaria vs Luxembourg will be broadcast live on RTL Two, on RTL Radio, and on RTLToday.lu in English from 5.45pm on Saturday.
