A bribe, Soviet laws and sips of vodka: this is how Hristo Stoichkov was signed by Barça

BarcelonaAugust 1989, Lluís Sitjar Stadium, Palma de Mallorca. This was the exact place and time when Barça's directors realized they had to sign Hristo Stoichkov. Several years ago, the Ciutat de Palma Tournament was always organized as part of the preseason, a typical summer championship that serves as a warm-up for the start of the season, to showcase new signings to the fans, and, in this case, to discover new ones. "We used to organize a tournament in Mallorca that included Barça or Real Madrid, Mallorca, and two teams from outside the island," recounts Josep Maria Minguella, the man who discovered Hristo Stoichkov and, at that time, a football agent. In that edition, the invited teams were Fortuna Düsseldorf and CSKA Sofia, the team of the famous Bulgarian striker. Barça and CSKA faced each other in the first "semifinal."

Hristo was the star of that match. He scored a goal, but he was also sent off due to his fiery temper. This incident shaped his future. "I remember a very iconic image. When he was sent off, he walked past Johan Cruyff's bench and pointed at him. Cruyff loved this. He said: 'That's the kind of player I need,'" says Xavier Torres, a sports journalist and friend of Stoichkov, in the documentary. Christ the indomitable3Cat has just been released.

Minguella wanted the player to meet Johan immediately, but this meeting had to be conducted in complete secrecy. Neither the Barça nor the CSKA board could find out about the encounter. Stoichkov had to use his ingenuity to escape from one hotel to another. He took advantage of the fact that the Bulgarian team was going for a walk after dinner, excusing himself by saying he had a stomach ache and would stay in his room. Later, he bribed the doctor not to examine him and thus spoil his deception. He had half an hour in total, which he used to get into Minguella's car, go to the Barça hotel, and return to his room. All without anyone noticing. "The first image that stuck with me was that the manager (Cruyff) had a large scar from an operation. That's all I could focus on," Stoichkov explains about his first meeting with Cruyff. "He told me he wanted me on the team, but that nobody could know anything, only Minguella, him, and me. This completely changed my mindset about what I had to do. It was the year I played my best matches in Bulgaria," Hristo recalls. This great season earned him the Golden Boot, shared with Hugo Sánchez, after scoring 38 goals.

In November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, and with it, many of the communist laws and regulations imposed on several European countries. One of these many laws stipulated that Bulgarian players under 28 years of age could not be transferred outside their country. This was the key that unlocked Stoichkov's negotiations with Barça. "The first meeting I had with the CSKA president was at eight in the morning in the offices of the National Stadium in Sofia. There was a soldier at the door, and I had to show him my passport to go up to the offices," Minguella recounts in the documentary. "We walked into a room and there were five or six CSKA executives having yogurt and vodka for breakfast," recalls the former football agent about the first meeting he had to bring Stoichkov to the Catalan club. Several sips of vodka later, Hristo landed in Catalonia for 400 million pesetas, just under two and a half million euros. Unknown, yet equally exciting, the Bulgarian player became one of the most important footballers in the entire history of FC Barcelona. "I know people, colleagues and friends of mine, who still carry a picture of Stoichkov in their wallets because of everything he meant to Barça," explains Carles Viñas, a historian, in the documentary. This is just a tiny example of how Stoichkov's figure remains very much alive in Barcelona, ​​even though his time in the city ended almost thirty years ago.