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WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : SPOTLIGHT : INSTANT HUMBLE

By CHRIS DUFRESNE
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Some international journalists had to bite their tongues when Bulgarian star forward Hristo Stoichkov stood on the interview podium Sunday and presented himself as a team player.

“I do not see myself as a star,” he said after his team’s 4-0 victory over Greece. “I am just one of 22 (players). Although I play for Barcelona, I hope I do not have the star attitude.”

Bulgarian bull?

Stoichkov has the reputation of a self-centered hothead. Said Barcelona Coach Johan Cruyff of Stoichkov: “Teammates are just people to be used for his own individual ends and then thrown away.”

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Chris Dufresne

Chris Dufresne was the Los Angeles Times’ national college football/basketball columnist from 1995 to 2015. He also covered skiing at the Winter Olympics and wrote extensively on most sports. He is a multiple national award winner and was named 2011 California Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Assn. A Los Angeles native, he started at The Times in 1976 as a truck loader and literally worked his way up (two floors to be exact).

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