Zagorcic comes in from the cold

Bulgarian national coach Plamen Markov has recalled defender Zlatomir Zagorcic to his squad in a 19-man party for their Sofia friendly against Germany.

Three-year absence
The Yugoslavia-born Zagoric, who became a Bulgarian citizen in 1998, won the last of his 14 caps in 1999. He returned to Bulgarian domestic football this season with PFC Litez Lovech after leaving Swiss club FC Lugano, although he is yet to play for his new side.

German-based trio
Injured 1. FC Kaiserslautern midfield player Marian Hirstov will miss the match but three German-based Bulgarians are included in the squad - national captain Krassimir Balakov of VfB Stuttgart, VfL Wolfsburg's Martin Petrov and Bayer 04 Leverkusen's Dimitar Berbatov.

Markov fit
The team will gather on Monday for their training camp, and will be joined by Markov after his recovery from a fractured head bone suffered in a domestic accident in June. Next week's friendly is a warm-up for Bulgaria's EURO 2004™ qualifying campaign, which they begin with a visit to Belgium on 7 September.

Bulgaria squad
Zdravkov, Ivankov, Kishishev, Bachkov, Kirilov, Zagorcic, G Petrov, Pazhin, I Petkov, Yanchev, S Petrov, Peev, M Petkov, Balakov, M Petrov, Jankovic, Berbatov, Manchev, Ivanov.