CSKA leads Levski from 2011 to 1830 in matches for Bulgaria
The eternal dispute over who is more, more, most in Bulgarian football – Levski or CSKA, is projected in the A team. Play for the Red Club a total of 2011 matches with the national shirt, while the Blues from the first match of Bulgaria on May 21, 1924 reaches – a total of 1830.
Our national team from the army club has joined more goals than those of Levski – 213 against 157. Ivan Kolev has the most falls for CSKA – 25, followed by Dimitar Milanov with 20 and Petar Zhekov with 13, in the opposite camp Nasko is first. Sirakov with 18, ahead of Asen Panchev with 15, realized in the pre-war 1926-1936, and the club icon Georgi Asparuhov with 14.
However, Levski leads in the number of its players, wearing the national shirt – 174. Seven foreigners wore the team 43 times while they were with the Blues, the last being Holmar Ejolfsson with 8 games for Iceland in the period 2018-2020. However, the record holder is the Macedonian Darko Tasevski with 21 matches. In the history of CSKA there are 152 players with matches for our national team, including the naturalized Brazilians Thiago Silva and Marquinhos. Among them, the record holder is Dimitar Penev with 86 matches, followed by his four matches for Bulgaria, while he was still active in Loko Sf. 21 camps in Borisova Garden have a total of 122 matches for their countries. Among them with the most meetings – 16, is Radoslav Zabavnik for Slovakia.
It is an interesting fact that in our debut on the international stage – 0: 6 against Austria in Vienna, there are 9 players of Levski and one each of the great rival during the years of Slavia and Varna Ticha. It is a common practice in the 1950s, marked by the constant participation of the KDNA of the leader of Krum Milev, the national eleven to be composed exclusively of players of the army club. Thus, in the semifinals of the Olympic Games in 1956 against the USSR we went out with 10 players of CSKA and only one representative of another club – Milcho Goranov from Slavia.
CSKA’s top ten closes with 50 games, and the first in the ranking of Levski – Nasko Sirakov, has 56 matches for Bulgaria, while wearing the blue team. Levski’s Top 10 does not include club legend Georgi Asparuhov with 38 games in the A team while he was at Gerena. Gundi also has 11 matches in the national team, while he was a player of Plovdiv’s Botev. Hristo Stoichkov has more matches for Bulgaria as a footballer in Barcelona – 35 than while he is in the “Army” – 30, and added 9 more matches as a representative of the Italian Parma and the Japanese Kashiva Reysol.
In the new century with the most matches in the national player of CSKA and Velizar Dimitrov – 21 in the period 2002-2008 before Alexander Tunchev with 16 (2006-2008), and 15 have Todor Yanchev (2001-2008). ) and Nikolai Bodurov (2017-2019). The picture of the eternal rival of the army in the 21st century is as follows – there are three with 28 meetings: Dimitar Ivankov (2000-2005), Elin Topuzakov (2000-2007) and Vladimir Gadzhev (2010-2015)
Play CSKA with the most matches for the A team:
- Dimitar PENEV 86 (1964-1977)
- Ivan KOLEV 75 (1952-1966)
- Georgi DIMITROV-Jackie 70 (1978-1988)
- Dimitar YAKIMOV 60 (1960-1973)
- Kiril RAKAROV 58 (1953-1962)
- Manol MANOLOV 57 (1950-1961)
- Bozhil KOLEV 55 (1970-1979)
- Radoslav ZDRAVKOV 54 (1980-1986)
- Boris GAGANELOV 51 (1963-1970)
- Ivan ZAFIROV 50 (1968-1980)
Play Levski with the most matches for the A team:
- Nasko SIRAKOV 56 (1983-1994)
- Plamen Iv. NIKOLOV 49 (1978-1988)
- 3. Bozhidar ISKRENOV 49 (1981-1989)
- Borislav MIKHAYLOV 48 (1983-1988)
- Petar PETROV 47 (1981-1987)
- Pavel PANOV 44 (1971-1979)
- Nikolay ILIEV 43 (1983-1993)
- Dobromir ZHECHEV 42 (1969-1974)
- Rusi GOCHEV 42 (1978-1986)
- Kiril IVKOV 41 (1968-1978)
- Zlatko YANKOV 41 (1990-1995).