Since he reached seven – until his last days, his life was marked by the great game, called football. He made his first steps in football in the children-and–juvenile school of Ficho Lishev. After that there came Academic (Svishtov) and he played with its men’s team 13 fatal matches. During his short but rich football career, Yuli had good and bad moments. He had to manage twice with heavy fractures of the arm and the leg, but in 2003 he got the prize for best juvenile back in the district of Veliko Tarnovo, took part in international competitions and passed the tests in an elite football school in Croatia where his bold game attracted the attention of the football specialists. Yuli was about to conclude a contract with a British manager’s agency and realize the transfer he had been dreaming of in a foreign team.
He was burning while he played, he completely gave himself out on the field until re reached full exhaustion, even when he knew that his team was losing the game or, as it often happens in Bulgaria, the score is settled in advance beyond the field. Thanks to football, Yuli learned to be disciplined, diligent, to overcome difficulties by his will and not to be afraid from them. This he showed to all of us in that cold night on 4th April 2004, when he fought as a real man for the lives of the others as well as for his own life, but death defeated him unfairly and meanly. But as long as there are young and courageous boys who love football, the fight still goes on and we shall continue it on his behalf!
In the spring of 2004 a bus full of joyful children, impatient to visit new places, started for Dubrovnik. The excursion, which was intended to be a pleasant experience, turned into a nightmare when on its way back to Bulgaria the bus fell into the icy waters of the river Lim. Destiny proved to be cruel to twelve of the children. Aleks, Toni, Bobi, Jenya, Svetoslava, Valyo, Viki, Lora, Gloria, Svetli, Ani and Yuli could not come back home, nor hug their families and friends, they did not have the chance to talk about their memories from the journey. Very early, they started another trip – to eternity. Our grief for them is endless, but still there is the hope that now our twelve angels are at a better and more beautiful place, far away from the corruptness of the modern world, inaccessible for the evil.
A few days after the tragedy in the river Lim came the idea for a football competition for juveniles in the memory of Yulian Manzarov. The Municipality of Svishtov, the Economic Academy of Svishtov “D.A.Tsenov”, the Professional Football League, Meridian Match, Angels from Lim Foundation, Professional Football Club “Academic” helped for its quite quick arrangement. The media showed serious interest towards the competition and the matches were guided by the best Bulgarian referees. The first part was held on 23rd and 24th May 2004 in the town of Svishtov and passed in good sportsmanship, sports will and desire for victory. The competition allowed the expression of the young talents of the senior juvenile teams (up to 18 years) of Academic, Svishtov, Alexandria (Romania), Litex Lovech and CSKA Sofia. The winners were the young footballers from CSKA who at the final match, after a contest final, prevailed over their coevals from Litex with the result of 2:1. Here follows statistics for the four matches from the last-year competition:
