Former Kyrgyzstan head coach Robert Prosinecki held talks with the Bulgarian Football Union over a possible appointment as national team coach.
Croatian outlet Tportal reported on October 10 that the 57-year-old had been in Sofia the previous day, where he met representatives of the Bulgarian federation. Prosinecki was named as one of the leading candidates for the vacant head-coach position.
Curiously, several days before the trip, Tportal journalists had already asked Prosinecki about the possibility of working in Bulgaria. At the time, the Croatian said he was hearing about it for the first time.
“Where did you get that from? No way, this is the first I’ve heard of it,” the outlet quoted him as saying.
Prosinecki’s close friend Fabian Komljenovic told journalists that the coach normally does not speak about negotiations before an agreement is reached. As an example, he recalled Prosinecki’s previous move to Kyrgyzstan: the Croatian did not tell him about those talks either and only informed him after the contract had been signed.
However, the story took an unexpected turn on October 11. Bulgarian media presented a different version of events. Match Telegraph, cited by Arena Sport, claimed that Prosinecki himself had initiated the contact and offered his services to the Bulgarian Football Union, but his candidacy was rejected. His trip to Bulgaria itself was not disputed, while the federation did not officially confirm that version.
Notably, a day earlier the same Arena Sport, citing Croatian sources, had described Prosinecki as one of the favourites for the job and reported that talks had taken place in Sofia. As a result, different versions remain in the foreign media over which side initiated the meeting.
Prosinecki had been out of work for around a month and a half. He was appointed Kyrgyzstan head coach on December 10, 2025. His initial contract was for one year and one month, with a possible three-year extension in the event of a successful performance at the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.
The Croatian did not remain in charge until the Asian Cup. On August 25, 2026, the Kyrgyz Football Union announced that the two sides had mutually agreed to end their cooperation. Prosinecki was replaced by Urmat Abdukaimov.
Before Kyrgyzstan, Prosinecki coached the national teams of Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, as well as a number of clubs in Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.