Despite scepticism from sections of the western press, and some
European football pundits about the ability of South Africa to host the FIFA
World Cup, Hristo Stoichkov, former Barcelona star and Bulgarian international
said South Africa is up to the test, and will not disappoint the world.
Stoichkov went to South Africa less than a year ago to take up
the coaching position at Mamelodi Sundowns, but he resigned after failing to
lead the club to the league title. However, the Bulgarian has only words of
praise for the country.
“Having seen the infrastructure here, I’m sure they will not
disappoint. South Africa will pass this test.” Stoichkov said of the South
Africa’s hosting ability.
Stoichkov, who led Sundowns to second place in the Premiership
only a point off the pace of champions Supersport, waved away the possible
concerns of tourists who will travel to the country for the FIFA World Cup.
Beautiful country
“Before coming here, I had read a lot in the newspapers, a lot
of negative things.
However, what I have experienced is something different to what
I read.
“I have been staying in South Africa for many months now, and I
think it’s a very beautiful country. It’s very nice here, I like it a lot,” the
man who was joint top-scorer at USA 1994 told FIFA.com during an interview. “I
don’t like comparing places because places are different. Barcelona is
different from Johannesburg, so is Cape Town. I don’t mean that in a bad way,
but people must understand that places are different. In those three places,
you find different people with different cultures, so of course the experiences
will be different,” he said. “I walk around a lot, I go to many places. I have
made many friends here. I meet people in the streets and my experience has been
good with them. Like any country in the world, there are places you don’t have
to go to. And, this applies to Madrid, Barcelona or London.”
In South Africa, Stoichkov is widely admired for his role at the
1994 FIFA World Cup as well as for his time with Barcelona. The quick-thinking
and skilful Bulgarian was part of what is now fondly referred to as the Catalan’s
“dream team,” which dominated Europe in the early 1990’s. He also endeared
himself to Sundowns supporters after he turned around what had initially looked
like an average season for the club and had them fighting for league honours
until the last week of the campaign.
Chances of African teams
Talking about how he thinks the African teams will perform at
the World, the former player hinged Africa’s hope on Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.
He doesn’t rate Nigeria as one of the African teams that might perform well.
“You have Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, very good teams. Then there’s South Africa
whom I think will have a point to prove. Those three African sides will be hard
to beat.” Although he is hesitant to predict which country will win, Stoichkov
doesn’t expect a surprise. “You have countries like Brazil, England, Spain,
Italy, Argentina – they are all favourites. All these teams are
organised and will be dangerous. Then you have the African teams whom I believe
will fight very hard in this tournament.
The legendary player turned coach, who has also led the
Bulgarian national team and Celta Vigo in Spain, rates Barcelona’s Lionel Messi
high and insists the in-form Barcelona maestro is the player to watch in this
World Cup. “He is the best player in the world at the moment. He is playing for
the best team [Barcelona] and he is very good.
“At the moment, if you talk about the best players, you have to
mention [Wayne] Rooney,
Cristiano [Ronaldo], Kaka, [Andres] Iniesta and few others that I might have
forgotten. Of course you will have the African guys like Didier Drogba and
[Samuel] Eto’o,” he said.
Leave a Reply