CEV
The legendary Bulgarian Dimitar Karov - 173 cm tall, bouncing 105 cm
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Article Tue, Nov 5 2019
Sofia, Bulgaria, November 5, 2019. The first computer machine in Volleyball. This is how some journalists called the legendary Bulgarian setter Dimitar Karov. The Magician from Bulgaria! During the glamorous Volleyball Gala in his hometown Sofia, Karov was one of the recipients of the prestigious CEV Lifetime Achievement Award, some 50 years after winning the Champions Cup with CSKA SOFIA and just before the 50th anniversary of Bulgaria’s silver medal winning performance at the 1970 World Championship.
“Getting such a recognition from CEV is a source of pride. I am so excited. Our generation was a bit forgotten, but this is normal - the life is dynamic with newly born heroes. I was pleasantly surprised at the news and when the recognition comes from CEV, it is really something big. I am very pleased,” said the famous Bulgarian Volleyball player, who is about to turn 76.
Dimitar Karov was born on November 27, 1943 in Sofia. He started to practice football and at the age of 15, he found himself in a Volleyball environment and started playing the game in the youth academy of Septemvri (Sofia). At 18, still at school, he was already in the first team of CSKA SOFIA. In 1969, he triumphed with the title of the CEV Champions Cup.
Dimitar Karov in action during his competitive years
In the 1970 World Championship in Sofia, he won the silver medal with the national team of Bulgaria. Karov made three and four appearances at the Olympics and at the European Championship, respectively. With CSKA, he won five championships titles in Bulgaria as a player and two as a coach. From 1972 to 1975, he played for CUS TORINO in Italy. The great Bulgarian setter is the only one in history to win the Trofeo Gazzetta for MVP in the Italian national league for three consecutive years - 1974, 1975, 1976.
Only 173 centimetres and what a high class! “Now when I am in the sports hall or when watching matches on TV I say: ‘I must have been crazy! How could I play against such maypoles and to be such a factor on the court?’ The truth is I trained like crazy. Yes, I am 173 centimetres tall, but my bounce was 105 centimetres. I knew I had to jump high, in order to be on top level. At the beginning, I played as an attacker with both left and right hands. One day the coach who took me to CSKA, the great Todor Simov, told me: ‘You will only eat with your left hand.’ I was very ambitious.
“In my apartment in Sofia I had a room that I turned into a small gym. Every day I was training by myself - between 90 minutes and 2 hours. I was jumping like crazy with dumbbells in my hands or with sandbags around my waist - I did 1,000 jumps, some time I got to 2,000 but I had to jump high. When I was in the men’s team of CSKA, even after training for three hours, I remained in the hall to do additional rebounds. I have heard many times: ‘You are crazy; you are going to get injured!’ but I knew: ‘Maybe I am crazy, but I want to be a very good Volleyball player.’ During the matches when I had no weights, when I jumped off the floor, I felt like I was flying. It is a great feeling,” Dimitar Karov recounts.
Karov portrayed together with other members of the Bulgarian golden generation
“The most exciting moment of my career was winning the Champions Cup with CSKA. Every single athlete dreams to reach the top. In fact, those years marked the whole rise of Bulgarian Volleyball. From 1967 to 1972, we had a very big jump in our development, in CSKA and in the national team as well, and after a wonderful 1969 came the biggest rise. A Bulgarian club won the Champions Cup - it was wonderful! In CSKA, we had a fantastic team, which was the core of the national team - Dimitar Zlatanov, Aleksandar Trenev, Vasil Simov, Stoycho Kraychev, Zdravko Simeonov. We had won the respect of our rivals. We had a dynamic style of play. We were a very difficult team to beat,” Karov continues.
“Of course, the other big highlight of my career is the final of the World Championship in 1970. We were so close to the gold medals. I will never forget that pain - the fated match against East Germany. I will never forgive to ourselves that we did not become World and Olympic champions because we deserved it but now I can say there must be recognition. Bulgaria with the silver medals at the World Championships - what a big success it was, what a big success it still is,” Karov continues. “Well, sometimes you need to have a little bit of luck. Leading 13:5 in the fifth set of the World Championship final and to lose it – it is a nightmare, a lifetime wound. We won the fourth set 15-4, we led in the fifth 13:5 and we were two points away from the gold medals but I will never forget another detail. Aleksandar Trenev made a clean block for the 14th point. At the time, the second referee from Turkey said that the t-shirt of Trenev had touched the net. I am sure no one else would ever take such a decision and that turned out to be a moment of great importance. That is why I am talking about the chance. As it was this summer, in 2019, at the Olympic Qualification in Varna - Tsvetan Sokolov sent the ball 5 cm out - otherwise Bulgaria would have beaten Brazil 3-0, but eventually they lost 2-3. Well, there are heart-breaking moments in sports,” Karov added.
Dimutar Karov (right) in a recent picture with former teammate and long-time friend Dimitar Zlatanov
It is not a surprise the legendary Bulgarian ‘Volleyball computer’ considers the Brazilian superstar Bruno Rezende to be the best setter in the world today. “He is perfect. Experienced. Reasonable. Intelligent.”
“The difference between Volleyball in our time and the current one is huge. Now it relies mostly on a few combinations. Sharp ball in Zone 4, pipe in Zone 6, attack from Zone 1... Now the tactical combinations are very strict and the setters themselves are often subordinate to them. In our time, the setter could have been a true creator. Sometimes we would attack with two or three attackers on one blocking player. A big part of this creative work came from the hands and the mind of the setters,” Karov says.
Another interesting detail from his biography - he is married to the sister of the best Bulgarian footballer for the XX century, Georgi Asparuhov, who initially played Volleyball as well and did very well in front of the net. Karov met his future wife Lidiya, who was a Volleyball player as well, while she was at a camp with the national team of Bulgaria.
Dimitar Karov (far right) together with CEV officials and the other legends honoured at the European Volleyball Gala held in Sofia last month
Volleyball is the life of the Bulgarian magician. That is why he did shine while attending the CEV European Volleyball Gala in Sofia. “When I came on stage, I still felt that good feeling. I was a part of the champions team, though the oldest one in it,” smiles Karov, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award along with Bas van de Goor, Francesca Piccinini and Neslihan Demir Güler.
“Bas is such a good chap. I really liked watching him and it was nice to meet him. I was also able to speak with the men and women’s Best Players of 2019, Uros Kovacevic and Tijana Boskovic from Serbia. I sincerely admire the Serbians for their outstanding rise in Volleyball; it is a pleasure to watch them. It was a pleasure to be with all these people from the big Volleyball family in my hometown. It is an honour that CEV shows this respect to the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation and entrusted them the organisation of the European Volleyball Gala. To host the men’s European and World Championships and the forthcoming 2021 edition of the women’s European Championship are also a good certificate for the work done by the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation. I sincerely hope new golden years for Bulgarian Volleyball are yet to come on the court as well,” Karov concluded.
Many thanks to Nayden Todorov for contributing to this story
“Getting such a recognition from CEV is a source of pride. I am so excited. Our generation was a bit forgotten, but this is normal - the life is dynamic with newly born heroes. I was pleasantly surprised at the news and when the recognition comes from CEV, it is really something big. I am very pleased,” said the famous Bulgarian Volleyball player, who is about to turn 76.
Dimitar Karov was born on November 27, 1943 in Sofia. He started to practice football and at the age of 15, he found himself in a Volleyball environment and started playing the game in the youth academy of Septemvri (Sofia). At 18, still at school, he was already in the first team of CSKA SOFIA. In 1969, he triumphed with the title of the CEV Champions Cup.
Dimitar Karov in action during his competitive years
In the 1970 World Championship in Sofia, he won the silver medal with the national team of Bulgaria. Karov made three and four appearances at the Olympics and at the European Championship, respectively. With CSKA, he won five championships titles in Bulgaria as a player and two as a coach. From 1972 to 1975, he played for CUS TORINO in Italy. The great Bulgarian setter is the only one in history to win the Trofeo Gazzetta for MVP in the Italian national league for three consecutive years - 1974, 1975, 1976.
Only 173 centimetres and what a high class! “Now when I am in the sports hall or when watching matches on TV I say: ‘I must have been crazy! How could I play against such maypoles and to be such a factor on the court?’ The truth is I trained like crazy. Yes, I am 173 centimetres tall, but my bounce was 105 centimetres. I knew I had to jump high, in order to be on top level. At the beginning, I played as an attacker with both left and right hands. One day the coach who took me to CSKA, the great Todor Simov, told me: ‘You will only eat with your left hand.’ I was very ambitious.
“In my apartment in Sofia I had a room that I turned into a small gym. Every day I was training by myself - between 90 minutes and 2 hours. I was jumping like crazy with dumbbells in my hands or with sandbags around my waist - I did 1,000 jumps, some time I got to 2,000 but I had to jump high. When I was in the men’s team of CSKA, even after training for three hours, I remained in the hall to do additional rebounds. I have heard many times: ‘You are crazy; you are going to get injured!’ but I knew: ‘Maybe I am crazy, but I want to be a very good Volleyball player.’ During the matches when I had no weights, when I jumped off the floor, I felt like I was flying. It is a great feeling,” Dimitar Karov recounts.
Karov portrayed together with other members of the Bulgarian golden generation
“The most exciting moment of my career was winning the Champions Cup with CSKA. Every single athlete dreams to reach the top. In fact, those years marked the whole rise of Bulgarian Volleyball. From 1967 to 1972, we had a very big jump in our development, in CSKA and in the national team as well, and after a wonderful 1969 came the biggest rise. A Bulgarian club won the Champions Cup - it was wonderful! In CSKA, we had a fantastic team, which was the core of the national team - Dimitar Zlatanov, Aleksandar Trenev, Vasil Simov, Stoycho Kraychev, Zdravko Simeonov. We had won the respect of our rivals. We had a dynamic style of play. We were a very difficult team to beat,” Karov continues.
“Of course, the other big highlight of my career is the final of the World Championship in 1970. We were so close to the gold medals. I will never forget that pain - the fated match against East Germany. I will never forgive to ourselves that we did not become World and Olympic champions because we deserved it but now I can say there must be recognition. Bulgaria with the silver medals at the World Championships - what a big success it was, what a big success it still is,” Karov continues. “Well, sometimes you need to have a little bit of luck. Leading 13:5 in the fifth set of the World Championship final and to lose it – it is a nightmare, a lifetime wound. We won the fourth set 15-4, we led in the fifth 13:5 and we were two points away from the gold medals but I will never forget another detail. Aleksandar Trenev made a clean block for the 14th point. At the time, the second referee from Turkey said that the t-shirt of Trenev had touched the net. I am sure no one else would ever take such a decision and that turned out to be a moment of great importance. That is why I am talking about the chance. As it was this summer, in 2019, at the Olympic Qualification in Varna - Tsvetan Sokolov sent the ball 5 cm out - otherwise Bulgaria would have beaten Brazil 3-0, but eventually they lost 2-3. Well, there are heart-breaking moments in sports,” Karov added.
Dimutar Karov (right) in a recent picture with former teammate and long-time friend Dimitar Zlatanov
It is not a surprise the legendary Bulgarian ‘Volleyball computer’ considers the Brazilian superstar Bruno Rezende to be the best setter in the world today. “He is perfect. Experienced. Reasonable. Intelligent.”
“The difference between Volleyball in our time and the current one is huge. Now it relies mostly on a few combinations. Sharp ball in Zone 4, pipe in Zone 6, attack from Zone 1... Now the tactical combinations are very strict and the setters themselves are often subordinate to them. In our time, the setter could have been a true creator. Sometimes we would attack with two or three attackers on one blocking player. A big part of this creative work came from the hands and the mind of the setters,” Karov says.
Another interesting detail from his biography - he is married to the sister of the best Bulgarian footballer for the XX century, Georgi Asparuhov, who initially played Volleyball as well and did very well in front of the net. Karov met his future wife Lidiya, who was a Volleyball player as well, while she was at a camp with the national team of Bulgaria.
Dimitar Karov (far right) together with CEV officials and the other legends honoured at the European Volleyball Gala held in Sofia last month
Volleyball is the life of the Bulgarian magician. That is why he did shine while attending the CEV European Volleyball Gala in Sofia. “When I came on stage, I still felt that good feeling. I was a part of the champions team, though the oldest one in it,” smiles Karov, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award along with Bas van de Goor, Francesca Piccinini and Neslihan Demir Güler.
“Bas is such a good chap. I really liked watching him and it was nice to meet him. I was also able to speak with the men and women’s Best Players of 2019, Uros Kovacevic and Tijana Boskovic from Serbia. I sincerely admire the Serbians for their outstanding rise in Volleyball; it is a pleasure to watch them. It was a pleasure to be with all these people from the big Volleyball family in my hometown. It is an honour that CEV shows this respect to the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation and entrusted them the organisation of the European Volleyball Gala. To host the men’s European and World Championships and the forthcoming 2021 edition of the women’s European Championship are also a good certificate for the work done by the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation. I sincerely hope new golden years for Bulgarian Volleyball are yet to come on the court as well,” Karov concluded.
Many thanks to Nayden Todorov for contributing to this story