Slavia Sofia president saves his player's life during match

Yahoo! Sports

Fri Apr 09 03:09am EDT

Slavia Sofia president saves his player's life during match

While many club presidents can't be bothered to step foot out of their posh executive boxes during matches, the chief of Bulgarian club Slavia Sofia, Ventsislav Stefanov, saved the life of one of his club's youth players during a junior league match.

From Reuters:

Slavia player Radomir Nikov was left unconsciousness following a challenge from Zhivko Atanasov, which the referee did not stop play for, during the 1-0 win over city rivals Levski Sofia on Thursday.
“I saw our lad collapsing and I needed no permission from the match officials to rush onto the pitch and help him,” Stefanov was quoted as saying.
“I didn’t hesitate,” he said. “But in a moment like this I would do the same for anyone, not only for a Slavia player.”

According to Sportal.bg, Stefanov took a team doctor out with him when he stormed the pitch to help the ignored player, who was convulsing on the ground. He also had a few choice words for the match officials, but proved to be quite the hero.

A tremendous act from Stefanov, although he doesn't always make the news for his noble deeds. Back in 2004, a political leader claimed that she and her family had been threatened on his behalf over a land deal involving his business interests, which have ties to a former criminal group called SIC. Even still, it sounds like Stefanov prevented a needless tragedy from occurring during that match.