The World Cup is here! Athletes and fans have been gathering from all the globe into North America to compete and spectate the world’s favorite sport. The DFW has been hosting matches including teams from the Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, England, Croatia, Argentina, Austria, and Jordan at AT&T Stadium.
UNT Special Collections just finished hosting an exhibit showcasing the career of Bob Kap, a Yugoslavian-Canadian coach that mentored Texas’ first professional soccer team, the Dallas Tornado Soccer Club. Among the materials within the Bob Kap Collection were personal film reels of the 1962 World Cup in Chile. One clip in particular seemed to get an unexpected amount of attention: the June 3rd Group 4 match between Hungary and Bulgaria.
Apparently, this match has been a topic of debate in Bulgarian sports history.
The 1962 World Cup marked the Bulgarian national football team’s first appearance at the FIFA World Cup, playing in Rancagua, Chile against Argentina, Hungary, and England. Of the three matches, they only scored a single goal. Due to limited technology at the time, the games were not televised live and there is very little footage available. As a result, there have been contradicting records regarding which Bulgarian player scored the single goal in the heavy 6-1 defeat against Hungary. It doesn’t help that the two players in question were both 19-year-old forwards named Georgi.
Georgi Sokolov (#14)
The son of a prominent Bulgarian goalkeeper Apostol “Potso” Sokolov, Georgi Sokolov debuted at age 15 with the club Spartak Pleven and went on to help secure a Bulgarian victory in the UEFA European Under-18 Championship in 1959. He is widely regarded as one of the most talented Bulgarian footballers of all time.
Georgi Asparuhov (#15)
Georgi “Gundi” Asparuhov was a striker that debuted with Levski Sofia at age 17. He briefly joined the club Botev Plovdiv in 1962 where he won the Bulgarian Cup before returning to Levski Sofia in 1963. Unfortunately, he was killed in a 1971 car crash in the Balkan Mountains alongside teammate Nikola “Koteto” Kotkov. He was 28 years old. The Levski Sofia stadium was renamed after him and he was named the Best Bulgarian Footballer of the 20th Century.
While the referee that recorded the match’s stats wrote down #14 in his notes, insinuating that Sokolov scored the Bulgarian goal, teammate #12 Dobromir Zhechev claimed that it was in fact Asparuhov that made the goal. Even Sokolov himself would admit that he assisted Asparuhov with a header and Asparuhov was the one that actually completed the goal. Despite this testimony, most sports history records credit Georgi Sokolov with scoring the first ever Bulgarin World Cup goal.
Bob Kap’s partial footage was shot behind the Bulgarian goalkeeper (ANOTHER Georgi [Naidenov]), so it is assumed the two forwards in question are on the opposite side of the pitch. Asparuhov can be briefly spotted at the 00:53 mark, but no clear sign of Sokolov. While the footage does not provide a clear solution to the 64-year-old mystery, it has allowed Bulgarian sports fan the opportunity to get a rare glimpse of a game they would have otherwise never seen.
Check out the rest of the Bob Kap Collection in the Portal to Texas History and be sure to grab a Bob Kap T-shirt from Special Collections to wear for your World Cup viewings!
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