“Boy, you will never play football again.“ This is what a doctor told Todor Yanchev when the future captain of CSKA was only in the fifth grade. The story was told by the current coach of the youth national team of Bulgaria in the podcast of the Bulgarian Football Union, BTA reported.
The former national team is another guest in form, speaking frankly about his path from his native Kazanlak to the captain's armband of CSKA and the championship titles with the “red”. Even as a child, Yanchev faced a serious test after a serious injury almost ended his dream of becoming a footballer.
„In the fifth grade, I got an injury after both bones in my lower leg were broken in a match. On the way to the hospital, the doctor started cutting the shins and the sock to free my leg. At one point, he started to do the same with the boots, but I stopped him. I had cried a lot about these shoes during a trip to the Czech Republic with my parents. I saw them in front of a store and sat down to cry until they bought them for me. And suddenly the doctor wanted to cut them up . . . I took them off myself and kept them, and he told me: „Boy, you won't play football anymore.“ I was crying, I was in severe pain, but my boots were next to me. After a few months, I recovered and even started playing football at school with crutches. "The love for football was very great," said Yanchev.
In the conversation, he also tells how in one of his first matches for CSKA he reluctantly put on the captain's armband, and later managed to win it permanently.
In the nearly 60-minute conversation, Yanchev also talked about his transfers to the Turkish Trabzonspor and the Danish Randers, as well as why he initially refused the first offer from the “Bulgarian Army“.