Hristo Bonev

In this Bulgarian name, the patronymic is Atanasov and the family name is Bonev.

Hristo Atanasov Bonev (Bulgarian: Христо Aтанасов Бонев; born 3 February 1947), also known as Zuma (Bulgarian: Зума), is a Bulgarian football manager and former player who last managed Lokomotiv Plovdiv in the Bulgarian A PFG.^[1] One of the greatest Bulgarian men's footballers, Bonev was renowned for his vision and technique.

Hristo Bonev

Bonev in 2016
Personal information
Full name	Hristo Atanasov Bonev
Date of birth	(1947-02-03) 3 February 1947 (age 78)
Place of birth	Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Attacking midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1964–1967	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	64	(19)
1967–1968	CSKA Sofia	6	(5)
1968–1979	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	337	(161)
1981–1982	AEK Athens	10	(0)
1982–1984	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	6	(0)
Total		422	(185)
International career
1967–1979	Bulgaria	96	(48)
Managerial career
1983–1985	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
1987–1988	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
1988–1990	Panathinaikos
1990–1993	AEL
1993–1994	Ionikos
1994–1996	APOEL
1996–1998	Bulgaria
1997–1998	Lokomotiv Sofia
2000	Sachsen Leipzig
2010	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Bonev in 1974

Bonev started his career at Lokomotiv Plovdiv in 1964 where he played until 1980 with a brief spell at CSKA Sofia in 1967. During his spell at Lokomotiv Plovdiv, he became their star player, while also was called to play for the national team.

In October 1980 Bonev moved to Greece and agreed to play for AEK Athens, in a 1+1 year deal which was effective from July 1981.^[2] After the signing of his contract on October 15, he left Greece and returned in December of the same year to start training with the team. From that period until he formally joined the club's roster, he participated only in friendly matches.^[3] Due to his knee injury his offer at AEK was meager, making only 10 appearances throughout the season.^[4] In the summer of 1982, AEK did not enable the option of the renewal in his contract and thus Bonev left the club.^[5] Furthermore in order to ensure his freedom then, he convinced the president of the club, Andreas Zafiropoulos by proposing as his replacement his compatriot Angel Kolev with a small amount of money.

After AEK he tried his luck in England, where Oxford United offered him a trial but with a better-paying contract option. The experiment in England did not catch on, as Bonev was betrayed by his knee and so he left Oxford with just 3 appearances in pre-season friendlies.

He returned to Lokomotiv Plovdiv to end his career in 1984 at the age of 37.^[6] Bonev has played in 404 games and has scored 180 goals in the A group for Lokomotiv Plovdiv. He has played also 14 games and has scored 6 goals in the UEFA Cup with "The Smurfs" (the nickname of Lokomotiv Plovdiv).^[7] Bonev won the Cup of the Soviet Army in 1983, he is also vice-champion of Bulgaria for 1973, with two more bronze medals won - in 1969 and 1974.

International career

Bonev played for the Bulgaria national team 96 times, scoring a record 48 goals, between 1967 and 1979.^[8] He played for his country at the 1970 and 1974 World Cups.

Managerial career

Bonev in 2018

Before ending his career at Lokomotiv Plovdiv Bonev played as a player-coach for a season. After his retirement he became a manager and initially went to Greece and became coach of Panathinaikos in 1988, where he won the Greek Championship in 1990 and he is chosen for the Manager of the season in Greece.

Then he managed AEL for three seasons following a year at Ionikos, where he won the second division league and got his club promoted to the first division. After Greece, he became manager of the Cypriot team APOEL in 1995 and until 1996 when he quit from his team, he won the Cypriot Cup in his first year in Cyprus in 1995 and the Double the following season.

He went back to his home country to become manager of Lokomotiv Sofia and then he was appointed as head coach to his country's national team for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Despite a disappointing showing in France, with only one point achieved from three games, he continued as national coach, but after a 3–0 defeat to Poland in the first qualifying match for Euro 2000 in September 1998, he decided to resign from his post, stating "I believe I have taken the team as far as I am able, and now it is time for the players to respond to someone else who, I hope, can improve our results."

Honours

As a player

Lokomotiv Plovdiv

• Cup of the Soviet Army: 1983

As a manager

Panathinaikos

• Alpha Ethniki: 1989–90

Ionikos

• Beta Ethniki: 1993–94

APOEL

• Cypriot First Division: 1995–96
• Cypriot Cup: 1995–96, 1994–95

Individual

• Bulgarian Footballer of the Year: 1969, 1972, 1973
• Best Bulgarian Footballer of 20th century: Third place
• Best Footballer of Plovdiv for 20th century
• Stara Planina Orden – 1st Class
• Honorary citizen of Plovdiv
• Manager of the year in Greece: 1989–90

Source: ^[9]

International goals

Scores and results list Bulgaria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bonev goal.^[10]

List of international goals scored by Hristo Bonev

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	9 October 1968	Mithatpaşa Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey	Turkey	2–0	2–0	Friendly
2	27 October 1968	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Netherlands	1–0	2–0	1970 FIFA World Cup qualification
3	15 June 1969	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Poland	1–0	4–1	1970 FIFA World Cup qualification
4	22 October 1969	Stadion Feijenoord, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Netherlands	1–1	1–1	1970 FIFA World Cup qualification
5	7 December 1969	Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Luxembourg	3–1	3–1	1970 FIFA World Cup qualification
6	5 May 1970	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Soviet Union	3–2	3–3	Friendly
7	2 June 1970	Estadio León, León, Mexico	Peru	2–0	2–3	1970 FIFA World Cup
8	9 June 1971	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	Norway	1–0	4–1	UEFA Euro 1972 qualification
9				4–0
10	7 September 1971	Grünwalder Stadion, Munich, Germany	West German Amateurs	1–3	1–3	Friendly
11	27 October 1971	Stadionul Național, Bucharest, Romania	Romania	1–1	1–1	Unofficial Friendly
12	10 November 1971	Stade Marcel Saupin, Nantes, France	France	1–0	1–2	UEFA Euro 1972 qualification
13	24 November 1971	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Spain	7–3	8–3	1972 Summer Olympics qualification
14	24 March 1972	Stadion Georgi Asparuhov, Sofia, Bulgaria	Soviet Union	1–1	1–1	Friendly
15	16 April 1972	Stadion Beroe, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria	Poland	1–1	3–1	1972 Summer Olympics qualification
16				3–1
17	31 May 1972	Estadio El Plantío, Burgos, Spain	Spain	1–1	3–3	1972 Summer Olympics qualification
18	21 June 1972	Stadion Georgi Asparuhov, Sofia, Bulgaria	Italy	1–0	1–0	Friendly
19	18 October 1972	Stadion Beroe, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria	Northern Ireland	1–0	3–0	1974 FIFA World Cup qualification
20				3–0
21	19 November 1972	Tsirio Stadium, Limassol, Cyprus	Cyprus	3–0	4–0	1974 FIFA World Cup qualification
22				4–0
23	31 January 1973	Nikos Goumas Stadium, Athens, Greece	Greece	2–2	2–2	Friendly
24	2 May 1973	Stadion Georgi Asparuhov, Sofia, Bulgaria	Portugal	2–0	2–1	1974 FIFA World Cup qualification
25	13 October 1973	Estádio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal	Portugal	1–1	2–2	1974 FIFA World Cup qualification
26				2–1
27	6 February 1974	Morphou Municipal Stadium, Morphou, Cyprus	Cyprus	2–1	4–1	1974 FIFA World Cup qualification
28				3–1
29				4–1
30	8 February 1974	Al-Sadaqua Walsalam Stadium, Kuwait City, Kuwait	Kuwait	2–0	3–1	Friendly
31	10 February 1974	Al-Sadaqua Walsalam Stadium, Kuwait City, Kuwait	Kuwait	1–1	2–1	Friendly
32				2–1
33	31 March 1974	Z.T.E. Stadion, Zalaegerszeg, Hungary	Hungary	1–3	1–3	Friendly
34	8 May 1974	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Turkey	1–0	5–1	1973–76 Balkan Cup
35				2–0[1]
36	25 May 1974	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	North Korea	1–0	6–1	Friendly
37				5–0
38				6–1
39	19 June 1974	Niedersachsenstadion, Hannover, Germany	Uruguay	1–0	1–1	1974 FIFA World Cup
40	13 October 1974	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Greece	1–0	3–2	UEFA Euro 1976 qualification
41	11 June 1975	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Malta	4–0	5–0	UEFA Euro 1976 qualification
42	25 January 1976	National Stadium, Tokyo, Japan	Japan	1–1	3–1	Friendly
43	28 January 1976	Yanmar Stadium Nagai, Osaka, Japan	Japan	1–0	1–1	Friendly
44	5 May 1976	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	North Korea	1–0	3–0	Friendly
45				2–0
46	22 September 1976	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Turkey	1–0	2–2	Friendly
47	9 October 1976	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	France	1–2	2–2	1978 FIFA World Cup qualification
48	25 April 1979	Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Argentina	1–1	1–2	Friendly

Notes

¹ Some sources credit Bonev's second goal as an own-goal by Nikos Kovis.