Blast from the Past no.48: Radostin Kishishev

Sometimes we do things in the heat of the moment that we regret. Sending a drunk text message to a former squeeze, having a temper tantrum at Tesco self-checkout, verbally abusing a cat for eating your olives. Things you’re embarrassed about afterwards that you wish you could undo.

And there were perhaps a few Charlton fans who were feeling sheepish about their past behaviour when their former midfielder Radostin Kishishev returned to the Valley in 2010, aged 36, playing for Brighton in a League One match.

During his seven years of unwavering commitment to the Addicks in their Premier League glory days, the big-hearted Bulgarian had been on the receiving end of more vitriol from the stands than any other player.

He was probably braced for more of the same when he found himself back with a rival club three years after leaving south-east London, but instead the stadium rose as one to applaud him.

For some fans, it was a case of belatedly realising what they had lost. For others, it was one last chance to show gratitude to a man who had always been their hero.

“One of Charlton’s most under-appreciated players. A legend,” was how one Addicks fans on the Charlton Life forum described Kishishev.

“Anyone who doesn’t rate Kish and what he did for us clearly doesn’t understand football,” said another.

Signed from Litex Lovech for £1m in the summer of 2000, having previously been overlooked on trial by Harry Redknapp at West Ham and Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, Kishishev joined the Addicks as a right-back - his position for the Bulgarian national team.

But manager Alan Curbishley identified warrior-like qualities that made the player better suited to a defensive midfield role. In Curbishley’s unfashionable side, the unfashionable Kishishev was the ideal water carrier.

“Not the most technically gifted player but the sort that would run through a wall if you asked him to,” recalled one fan.

“It wasn’t what he did on the ball but off it. He was a human shield in front of our back four cutting off angles so the killer pass couldn’t be made,” said another.

Others rolled out the clichés of football appreciation, such as “a proper grafter”, “always gave 110 per cent”, “a player’s player”, “ran all day for the team” and “a manager’s dream”.

“If we had a midfielder with half his energy and commitment we wouldn’t be where we are now,” summarised a fellow Addick.

Cristiano Ronaldo is one player who won’t forget this robust approach, having famously been kicked out of the game nullified by Kishishev on a trip to the Valley.

“He never got past me. The ball maybe but not him,” the Bulgarian said afterwards.

Not that anyone would pretend Kishishev was perfect. On various occasions he made errors that led to opposition goals, but his supporters have theories for that too.

“He made occasional mistakes simply because he covered every blade of grass and always made himself available to receive a pass. There will always be those unable to see the basic statistical fact that the more you are involved in the game the greater the probability of a mistake, hence the unwarranted stick he sometimes received from certain sections of the crowd,” argued one Charlton supporter.

“He was good at bailing others out when they made a mistake. But if he made a mistake no one managed to repay the favour so he often got blamed for the team conceding goals,” agreed another.

Kishishev wasn’t exactly lethal at the other end. Charlton fans had to wait three years for his first goal, although it was worth the wait - a screamer against London rivals West Ham that he marked with an excellent Incredible Hulk celebration. He scored another against Everton two weeks later, then never found the net in English football again. You’ll be hard pressed to find anything he did on YouTube.

But perhaps the most telling statistic about Kishishev’s value to Charlton is that his seven seasons at the club corresponded exactly with their seven consecutive years in the top flight.

In his final campaign, with Curbishley having departed, he suffered injury problems and was then loaned out to Championship Leeds by new boss Alan Pardew.

“Kishi was the kind of player you only start to miss when he’s gone,” commented one fan.

“Our hardest working player and a lot went unnoticed,” said another - a fact borne out by the Bulgarian’s always-exemplary OPTA stats.

After Charlton were relegated in 2007, Kishishev was released. He spent an unhappy 18 months at Leicester City before going back to Bulgaria, but returned to England - and to the Valley - with Brighton.

Kishishev ran the show from midfield in a 4-0 Albion victory, but it’s the reception he received from the home fans that sticks with him most.

“I was very, very surprised and very happy,” said the player later. “It was unbelievable.” He admitted that Charlton supporters had been “50/50 on my ability”. But they are less equivocal now.

“He epitomised the spirit of Curbishley’s team and was definitely one of the best Charlton players of the Premier League era,” concluded one fan.

“He loved playing for us and he loved the fans. Unlike so many, he didn’t hide when the going got tough,” said another.

That solitary season at Brighton proved to be Kishishev’s swansong in England. He saw out the rest of his career in the Bulgarian league and then tried his hand at management in his home country, but his life was touched by tragedy when he lost his wife to cancer in 2012.

He has since remarried and is the father of five children - two from his first marriage, two brought by his second wife and one that they had together. He has quit football, and instead opened a couple of restaurants in his hometown of Burgas. One is easy to spot - it’s called ‘Kishi’. Charlton fans are welcome there any day if they want to say hello or, perhaps, “Sorry”.

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