How Petar Zhekov made Bulgarian history

With 25 goals in 44 games for Bulgaria and a record 253 in 333 games in domestic football, Petar Zhekov's place in national football history is assured. As he turns 70, UEFA.com spoke to the five-time title winner – with PFC CSKA Sofia – who won the European Golden Boot in 1969, as well as Bronze Boots in 1970 and 1973.

International career (1964-73, 44 games/25 goals)
For various reasons, I only played 44 international games. I am really proud to have helped the national team to the final at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. The other game that will live on in my memory is the 1968 European Championship quarter-final against Italy in Sofia. We won 3-2 and I scored our third. The second leg was very hard. We lost 2-0 and Italy went on to win the title. In terms of goals, 1968 was unbelievable for me. I scored 84 goals that year for Beroe, CSKA and the national team, including friendlies.

PFC Himik Dimitrovgrad (1962-63, 25 league games/8 goals)
I started my career as a centre half, then I was moved to midfield and finally I became a striker, but I scored a lot of goals in every position. I spent just one season with Himik and only scored eight goals because I had to play a lot of games with the national youth side. I started to play as a forward towards the end of the season to save the team from relegation, but we got relegated and I moved to Beroe.

Zhekov with Bulgaria in 1973©Getty Images

PFC Beroe Stara Zagora (1963-68, 141 league games, 101 goals)
At the time, Beroe were trying to get established in the top flight, and gradually gathered several wonderful players. I started to receive good service and the goals just started pouring. What a team we had there – Evgeni Yanchovski, Yancho Dimitrov, Ivan Vutov, Georgi Belchev.

In my last season a young lad came named Petko Petkov. We made a very good duo and later he became one of the greatest ever goalscorers in Bugaria. Unfortunately, we lost the 1968 cup final 3-2 against Spartak Sofia; I got injured in the first half. It would have been great to leave Beroe with a trophy.

PFC CSKA Sofia (1968-75, 167 league games, 144 goals)
I spent my last season at Beroe as a CSKA player as everything had already been signed. It was a dream come true to join the Reds. I had an instant rapport with the other two attackers, Nikola Tsanev and Dimitar Yakimov, but we also had rocks at the back and such talented players in midfield; all of them are legends – Dimitar Penev, Asparuh Nikodimov, Georgi Denev to name a few.

Peter Zhekov's gold and bronze boots©Meridian Match

We won so many trophies. I just banged in the goals – all kinds of goals, right foot, left foot, headers, from close range and even from the halfway line. The only thing I regret is missing the European Cup quarter-final against Bayern München in March 1974. In the previous round of the competition we dethroned the mighty Ajax and were quite confident prior to the games against the German giants. But I got a serious injury during the first league game of the spring at Botev Vratsa and was out of action for almost half a year. God only knows what I could have done against Bayern ...

His three best goals
It is very hard to pick just three from more than 300, but I will never forget the one I scored in Lev Yashin's testimonial in 1971 in Moscow. Playing in front of 100,000 fans and being on the pitch with some of the all-time greats like Pelé, Eusébio, Franz Beckenbauer, Bobby Charlton, Gerd Müller and so many more. I scored with a header following Bobby Charlton's header.

The other two goals are against CSKA's arch rivals Levski Sofia. The first in March 1973, when I scored the winner from the halfway line with a minute to go; the other one is the from the 1969 cup final, when I scored the winner with a left-foot volley four minutes from time and that was my first major trophy.