Bulgaria will play perhaps its most important match in the European Championship for men under 18 today - against France. The outcome of the match will largely determine where Desi Velichkova's boys will head in the standings. If the young "lion cubs" make a giant leap and beat the "roosters" cleanly, they will theoretically keep their chances for qualifying for the top four. However, this also requires a three-game victory over Poland tomorrow and a possible loss of the "red-whites" to Portugal today. Then the points won and lost will be considered. This is in theory, we will see what happens in practice.

Today's match is very intriguing from another point of view. For the first time in front of a home crowd, a Bulgarian boy will face his teammates and compatriots. Yes, you guessed it! We are talking about Viden Natsev! The same person who on May 14, 2023, was chosen as the most valuable player (MVP) in the finals of the Bulgarian volleyball championship for boys under 16. The same person who two months later was already part of the French national team for juniors under 17. And since July 19, he has been playing with the "roosters" team at the European Championship in this age group in Montenegro. Bulgaria was there too, but... without Natsev. Much has been said and written about "the Natsev case", we do not intend to repeat what has been written. The truth always has two sides. Or as the slogan of a very popular series from the 90s was - "The truth is out there!". It's just really a shame for Bulgaria to so easily let go of its talents!

We hope the Bulgarian audience will be up to the task, so we don't witness ugly scenes like in 2005 in Varna, when the hall loudly booed Hristo Zlatanov and Ventsi Simeonov, who were then with the Italian team.

photos: Nikolay Varadinov