Bulgaria U21

Romania is the fixture that matters most, qualifiers between the two carrying weight beyond the group table, with Greece a lesser regional foil. That pattern of Balkan rivalry runs through the side's history: its earliest recorded success came in the Balkan Youth Championship, won in 1968, 1970 and again in 1973, before UEFA had even settled on the under-21 format. The senior European Under-21 Championship arrived later, and Bulgaria reached the semi-finals in its first campaign, 1972, then again in 1978 — the high-water marks of a team that has since gone no further than the quarter-finals, managed in 1974, 1976 and 1990.

There is no fixed home ground. Matches move between grounds in Sofia and provincial cities, recent qualifiers staged at Stadion Vitosha in Bistritsa, Hristo Botev Stadium in Blagoevgrad and Georgi Benkovski Stadium in Pazardzhik, with the squad based between games at the Bulgarian Football Union's national training centre in Boyana.

Petar Mihtarski holds the appearance record, 51 caps and 21 goals. Atanas Mihaylov is the side's leading scorer with 31. Ivelin Popov passed through between 2006 and 2008, and Kiril Despodov scored eight goals in his run from 2015 to 2018 before both became senior internationals. Todor Yanchev manages the side.