Former captain of the Bulgarian national football team and former president of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) Borislav Mihaylov passed away at the age of 63, his family announced.

He had serious health problems after suffering a stroke, and had been in hospital since the end of November. His condition was critical in recent weeks; he was in a coma, and failed to recover, despite the efforts of the doctors.

Mihaylov was born on February 12, 1963 in Sofia. He is one of the best goalkeepers in the history of Bulgarian football. Captain of the Bulgarian national team at the 1994 World Cup in the USA, when Dimitar Penev's selection reached fourth place in the world. He has a total of 102 matches with the "tricolors" team, wearing the captain's armband in 60 of them, which is a record.

At club level, Mihaylov is a youth player of Levski and with the representative team of "the blues" he won the championship title three times (1984, 1985 and 1988) and the national cup three more times (1982, 1984 and 1986). In 1986, he was named Footballer of the Year of Bulgaria. In his career he also played for Botev Plovdiv and Slavia in Bulgaria, as well as for Portuguese Belenenses, French Mulhouse, English Reading and Swiss Zurich.

After the end of his competitive career, he entered the management of the BFU, and in the period 2001-2005 he was vice-president of the central body, and on November 21, 2005 he was elected president - a post he held until October 15, 2019, when he resigned after a racist scandal in the stands during the 0:6 loss to England in Sofia in a European qualifier the day before. Subsequently, on April 28, 2021, he withdrew his resignation and again became president of the BFU until November 27, 2023. He is the longest-serving president of the central body – 16 years. In the period 2011-2019 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the European football central UEFA.

Mihaylov is a holder of the Order "Stara Planina" I degree from July 20, 1994 and an honorary citizen of Sofia.