Bulgarian legendary footballer Hristo Stoitchkov, who is now a mentor of the national team, has won the online poll of Eurosport.com with 58% of votes cast for him to be the Player of 1990s.

His main rival in the voting - Romania's Georghe Hagi - remained second with a final score of 40% of votes cast until noontime on Monday when the poll was closed down.

Stoitchkov and Hagi have apparently shared the nearly 900,000 votes pushing down to the zero-vote rate players such as Gabriel Batistuta, Romario, Paolo Maldini. It was only Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel who scored the honorary 1% of votes.

The poll saw a one-day disconnection last week after organisers announced hackers had intervened to fuel Georghe Hagi's percentage.

Meanwhile, the extraordinary poll has captured the imagination of Bulgarians and Romanians with television and newspapers urging to support their heroes.

The greatest years of Bulgaria's national coach Stoitchkov came between 1990-94 when he inspired Barcelona to the Liga title in each of his four seasons at the club. He followed this up with an astounding performance at the 1994 World Cup in the USA, taking the unfancied Bulgarians - who had never before gained so much as a point in the World Cup - to the semi-finals.

Stoitchkov's six goals made him the tournament's top scorer, and he completed the year scooping the prestigious France Football Ballon d'Or for his feats for club and country.

Hristo Stoitchkov will receive the award Player of 1990s at a special ceremony in Sofia organised by Eurosport's office in France.

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