Brazilian footballers

By George Georgakopoulos

In his swan song on the Greece bench, the 2014 World Cup, Portuguese manager Fernando Santos has chosen to add his personal touch to the squad that will travel to Brazil next month: He has added a Brazilian-born Greek amateur player to his 23-man squad, showing how much he appreciates local knowledge.

Ludogorets Razgrad won the Bulgarian football Cup for a second straight year, beating Botev Plovdiv 1:0 in the final.

Roman Bezjak scored the only goal of the match in the 58th minute to give the Razgrad team its second consecutive double, winning both the league and cup.

Greece will create a little bit of history in Brazil in June and reach the World Cup knockout stages for the first time coach Fernando Santos has confidently predicted.

Clubs from the English Championship (2nd league) are reportedly interested in the coach of Bulgaria's football champions Ludogorets Razgrad, Stoycho Stoev.

Ludogorets Razgrad have once again become Bulgaria's football champions, for a third successive year.

Ludogorets Razgrad could seal the Bulgarian League title on Wednesday when they host Lokomotiv Plovdiv in their 36th round match.

Anything but a loss would be enough to give the greens their third consecutive championship – something no football club outside the capital Sofia has ever done.

The owner of Bulgaria's football champions Ludogorets Razgrad, Kiril Domuschiev, will financially support the basketball club Chernomorets Burgas.

The team from the Black Sea coast finds itself in a very difficult situation, ranked bottom in Bulgaria's National Basketball League, with only 2 wins in 20 matches this season.

Bulgaria's football champions Ludogorets Razgrad have earned almost EUR 7 M from their matches in the Europa League.

In December, the team's owner Kiril Domuschiev revealed that the club's profits from finishing first in the group stage are EUR 5.8 M. This sum has soared even more after the matches with prestigious European clubs Lazio and Valencia, Dnevnik.bg reports.

A record number of 43,000 spectators are expected during Thursday's Europa League match between Bulgaria's Ludogorets Razgrad and Spain's Valencia.

The first leg of the 1/8 finals of the tournament will be played in Sofia's Vasil Levski National Stadium, from 8 PM local time.