davieG Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 thor: Leicester City image: http://www.lcfc.com/cms_images/tunchwv-4-3280-2767908_478x359.jpg Aleksander TunchevImage by: Press Association Over the years, more than 100 Leicester City players have represented 32 different nations at full international level, amassing 800 caps between them, and scoring well over 50 international goals. This season, in a new series, Club Historian John Hutchinson looks at these players and at the footballing background of the countries they played for. The Player: Aleksander Tunchev image: http://www.lcfc.com/cms_images/tunchev-480-lcfc280-2767909.jpg When Leicester City signed 27 year old centre-half Aleksander Tunchev in July 2008, it was a tremendous coup for a Club about to embark on its only season in League One. An established Bulgarian international, Tunchev had won a Bulgarian Championship and Bulgarian Supercup double with Lokomotiv Plovdiv in 2004. He also captained CSKA Sofia to the Bulgarian Cup and Super Cup in 2006 and to the Bulgarian Championship in 2008. However, financial troubles forced CSKA to sell Tunchev to Leicester City where fellow Bulgarian international Radostin Kishishev helped him to settle in. His classy performances in his first season, when Leicester City won the League One title, made him a fans' favourite but his season ended after five months when he tore his right anterior cruciate ligament in an FA Cup tie at Crystal Palace. Nine months later, in his first start after that injury, another knee injury and subsequent complications ruled him out for a further 19 months. Fit again in time for the 2011/12 season, Tunchev played 10 games for Crystal Palace on loan, and a further three games for Leicester, before being released in May 2012. Tunchev spent the next season playing in Poland for Zaglebie Lubin before returning to play for his old Bulgarian clubs Lokomotiv Plovdiv (twice) and CSKA Sofia. Whilst at Leicester, Tunchev won six of his 21 caps for Bulgaria. The Country: Bulgaria image: http://www.lcfc.com/cms_images/tunchev-480-bulgaria280-2767910.jpg Football was introduced to Bulgaria in 1909 by students returning from Istanbul, but the Balkan Wars (1912/13) and the First World War delayed the game’s development. A National Championship was established in 1937 and three years after the Communist takeover of Bulgaria in 1945, a two-Division National League was formed. Under the Communists, teams representing state bodies such as the Interior Ministry (Levski) and the Army (CSKA) dominated domestic football. The Communist regime collapsed in 1989. For the first time, players were allowed to play abroad, most notably Hristo Stoichkov who made such an impact at Barcelona and internationally in the 1990s. This drift of players to Western Europe caused the domestic game to decline but it improved the national side which had not won a single game in their five World Cup Finals between 1962 and 1986. The only international successes under the Communists had been bronze and silver football medals at the 1956 and 1968 Olympic Games. In 1994 however, inspired by Stoichkov, Bulgaria reached the World Cup semi-finals. Two years later Bulgaria qualified for the European Football Championship of the first time. However Bulgaria failed to progress from the group stage of the 1998 World Cup Finals and have not qualified for a major final since, recently failing to qualify for Euro 2016. Read more at http://www.lcfc.com/news/article/global-foxes-aleksander-tunchev-2767922.aspx#Tkt4KSobPuQEzkh3.99
Arriba Los Zorros Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 Match fixer Tunchev Christ, is that true? Would say that I can understand it given the situation in Bulgaria, but most footballers like him that made it have probably earnt a good wedge. Shame, I liked Tunch
Fox92 Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 Top player, shame about his injury problems. Could have/should have played more here.
AKCJ Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 Loved him. If he didn't have glass knees and had an extra yard of pace he would have been special. Don't think i've seen a centre half read the game as well as he did since the likes of Elliott.
J.Lisemore Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 How different his career could have been, I think he could have replicated Jose Fonte.
steveherbe Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 How different his career could have been, I think he could have replicated Jose Fonte. What? And played for a shite club like saints?
Banks Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 How different his career could have been, I think he could have replicated Jose Fonte. If he didn't have glass knees I reckon he would have surpassed Fonte. Great player
ScouseFox Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 nowhere near as good as everyone thought he was. and always injured.
Stevosevic Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 Christ, is that true? Would say that I can understand it given the situation in Bulgaria, but most footballers like him that made it have probably earnt a good wedge. Shame, I liked Tunch http://www.worldsoccer.com/news/bulgarian-police-arrest-9-match-fixing-358354
davieG Posted 28 October 2015 Author Posted 28 October 2015 He certainly looked classy in league 1 beyond that it's hard to judge because of his injuries.
ScouseFox Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 jack hobbs looked every inch as good and was younger. and turned out to be pretty shit.
Richard Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 Played just 26 times over 4 years according to wiki
Ric Flair Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 League One was a doddle for him, just like it was for Mark Davies. Both left us yearning for more after playing in a very strong team for that level and thinking what could have been if they'd stayed/stayed fit. I still think he thought League One was Ligue 1 and joined us on that basis as there was absolutely no right for us to have signed him.
Guest CityFan 06 Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 From what I saw of him I thought he looked very good whilst he was at Leicester. Looked like he had that quality about him.
BoyJones Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 We never got the chance to see if he was really any good, considering the standard of football we were involed in at the time. Was at the Palace game when he did his ACL. Unfortunately, he became injury prone thereafter and ended up losing about three years of his career, when he should have been at his peak. As clubs do, we moved on without him. Personally, I have more time for the likes of Nicky Summerbee, who played about the same number of games, but helped us out in our dark days of 2002/3, on I believe reduced salary. He just wanted to play, albeit towards the end of his career.
cityfanlee23 Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 Loved him. If he didn't have glass knees and had an extra yard of pace he would have been special. Don't think i've seen a centre half read the game as well as he did since the likes of Elliott. That was the thing, He was not the quickest but he did not need to be, he was always a steap ahead. Genuinely think he could have played in the Premier League, he was a country mile better than league 1 and easily capable in the championship, I remember the day we signed him, the birch done a talk in the bar pre match at the club, He said "having watched this lad in training, i've no idea how we got him, someone must have told him we were still in the premiership"
bovril Posted 28 October 2015 Posted 28 October 2015 Saw him keep di Natale in his pocket in '08. Very cerebral player. Difficult to judge what he could have done for us without the injuries. Match fixing allegations don't surprise me as Loko Plovdiv is very bent even by Balkan standards.
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