Former Bulgaria great Hristo Stoitchkov was appointed coach of Bulgarian league champion Litex Lovech on Thursday.
The 45-year-old Stoitchkov, who led Bulgaria to the semifinals at the 1994 World Cup in the United States, was introduced by club owner Grisha Ganchev. He replaces Atanas Dzhambazki, who quit following the team's poor performance this season.
Litex, which has won the last two league titles, has only one win and one draw from four matches and is currently seventh with 11 points behind surprise leader Ludogorets Razgrad.
''I want to thank Stoitchkov for agreeing to help our team in difficult times,'' Ganchev said, adding that Stoitchkov's contract is ''unlimited, because you simply can't fire a world star.''
Renowned for his fiery temperament, Stoitchkov was one of the world's top forwards in the 1990s and the leading scorer at the 1994 World Cup. He won the Golden Ball as the top player in Europe in 1994 and was twice runner-up in FIFA's world player of the year award.
In his first spell at Barcelona from 1990-95, he helped the team to victory in the European Cup in 1992 and also won four successive Spanish league titles. He returned in 1996 for two more years during which the squad won the Cup Winners' Cup and another league title.
Stoitchkov spent four seasons in the MLS, playing 51 games and scoring 17 goals over three years with the Chicago Fire. He played 23 games with D.C. United, where he was also the team's assistant coach.
In 2003, Stoitchkov retired and moved back to Spain, where he accepted an offer by Barcelona to help train the team's junior players.
In a three-year spell as Bulgaria coach, he failed to lead the team to the 2006 World Cup. He has also coached Spanish club Celta Vigo and South African side Mamelodi Sundowns.
