The Bulgarian Riviera should suffice: Vilian Bijev at Cherno More Varna

Does this tie him to Bosnia now?

 

Maybe he's just repaying some good will for them helping speed his (Bulgarian) citizenship process up

 

Well Bulgaria and Bosnia are different so no.

Also I can't blame Ramos for not calling him in, he hasn't been getting games. Getting one game for a whole season in the 2nd division of Norway is hardly impressive.

Hopefully he doesn't end up becoming the next Dimitar Berbatov.

 

Whoops.

 

Also, he has never played in an official competition for the US so he would only be preliminarily cap tied.

 

yeah, what competition are the Bulgaria U21s playing in?

edit: looks like 2015 U21 Euro qualifiers

 

Qualifying for 2015. They have a home game with Andorra on 6/1 and a road game against them on 6/5.

 

It's the latter. Specifically, Bulgaria U21, which includes Villyan Bijev, competes for the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship. It began on March 2013 and finishes in September 2014. The final tournament in 2015 is hosted by the Czech Republic.

Right now, Bulgaria U21 is in Group 2 for the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification through "Qualifying Group Stage". The competitors within this group are Russia U21, Denmark U21, Slovenia U21, Estonia U21, and Andorra U21.

2015 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_UEFA_European_Under-21_Football_Championship

2015 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_UEFA_European_Under-21_Football_Championship_qualification

2015 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification Group 2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_...1_Football_Championship_qualification_Group_2

 

His national team prospects are certainly better for Bulgaria than with the US.

But that's probably a discussion better suited for https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/yanks-on-foreign-ynts.896049/page-18

 

So this would be a provisional cap-tie situation, correct?

 

Although the news story is five days old, Nov Sport profiled Villyan Bijev, where he's playing for Bulgaria U21. I found the news article from Wikipedia through his biography under his name.

Talent from Liverpool and Hansa will play Bulgaria [May 16, 2013] (Use Google Translate in translating from Bulgarian to English for reading)
http://www.novsport.com/news595381_1003.html

Interestingly, the news article called him "Villa Bizhev", not "Villyan Bijev".

Anyway, there's an interesting excerpt in pertaining on choosing the country for representation, for which the young footballer selects:

According to the rules of FIFA player can play more than one country in the teenage and youth formations, but if 21 years or older must choose which country to represent. For this reason and Bizhev and Yordanov no obstacles in front of him to carry the team of Bulgaria.

 

Bulgaria's NT isn't very good. They missed the last 2 Euros and haven't made a World Cup since '98. Chances are if Bijev ends up being any good, he'll play for us; especially since he's born and raised in the US.

 

That's somewhat correct, but it leaves out that a youth "competition" (like this Euro U21 qualifying) ties you to a country until you file a one time switch, even to play in another youth competition or friendly. Yes, he could bounce back and forth playing friendlies for either, but once he takes the field for a competition, he is provisionally cap-tied to that country.

 

Good for him. This might help his pro prospects if he cant break through at Liverpool. A little more exposure can't hurt.

Plus, there is no point being left in limbo if you are not picked for a youth team. If someone else offers you a non-binding spot, take it. It can't hurt

 

Okay. I take that he'll get more playing time with Bulgaria U21, raising his profile, developing more football skills, and getting more in "fitness" form.

 

I would generally agree.

 

This is correct. He would need to make a one-time switch now to the U.S. I believe.

I think he'll end up doing so if he turns out to be a very good player. I'm not too worried about this even if it isn't a GOOD thing.

 

I don't see where they call him Villa. Вилян = Vilyan

Бижев is indeed how the name is pronounced, but the English alphabet is, frankly, terrible and there's no one way to represent the ж sound. Vision and beige, for example...

Bulgaria is currently 2nd place in their WC qualifying group, so they're making a run for it. The EURO will also be 24 teams starting in 2016, so Bulgaria has a veritable chance to make those tournaments now.

 

Rep for saying what we're all thinking.

 

my cousin's last name has that ж "zhe" character, and the latin alphabet uses the Ž to spell that sound (so when spelled in English alphabet, it's just the regular "z").

Since everything is spelled phonetically in Cyrillic languages, the family must have changed the spelling of their last name when they immigrated knowing that Americans typically phonetically pronounce the letter J in a way that sounds like the "zhe" character. Because J is slavic languages is a "y" sound, another sound altogether.

They probably didn't want a bunch of Americans saying Bee-Zev !

 

The я is pronounced as "iya" and the H is pronounced as "n" so I don't see where the Villa comes into play.

My name in Bulgarian, Jon, actually has the ж character and it's pronounced more as a very soft D, then sion, so d-sion, a bit similar to the mustard actually. I've been studying Bulgarian for a couple years now and recently spent a month there and find the language fascinating. Not too tough actually once you learn the freakin alphabet, which of course you need to learn multiple versions of given the written and print versions are different, written being tougher to read for me.

As for Bijev, he won't play for BG's senior team if he ends up as good as I think he will. Their program is in shambles despite the somewhat recent success, which we actually have to see how WCQ working out for them. There's a reason Berbatov stopped playing and it wasn't just media attention. The program is a mess. Bijev will have a much, much greater chance to get to the WC with us down the road. But given we're ignoring him recently, the Euro's will actually be a great experience for him.

 

Bijev called up by Bulgaria for upcoming Euro U-21 qualifiers

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Franco Panizo

http://www.soccerbyives.net/2013/05/bulgaria-upcoming-qualifiers.html

 

Wait so how do we say his name?

 

Vilyan Bizhev

 

The last thing I expected from this thread was a lesson on the Bosnian language!