As Kaiserslautern players resigned to the fact they will be relegated from the Bundesliga, their recently appointed Bulgarian coach had to resign to missing out on a EUR 100 000 bonus, media reports say.

Balakov and his assistant Iliya Gruev were to receive the juicy bonus if they had managed to keep the southern Germans in the country's top flight, a mammoth task, which even local commentators have described as mission impossible.

Balakov, who is so far the only Bulgarian coach in the history of the Bundesliga, has admitted that the team is already thinking about next season.

Struggling Kaiserslautern are just one game away from being condemned to a life in the second division after going down 3-1 to Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday, even though the club staged its best performance ever since it is under the Bulgarian's leadership.

Bulgaria's legendary former football player Krasimir Balakov formally took over the German Bundesliga cellar dweller Kaiserslautern at the end of March.

He replaced Marco Kurz who was sacked after a 16-game winless streak.

The former midfield international, 45, who spent eight years as a player in the Bundesliga at VfB Stuttgart between 1995 and 2003, left the Croatian side Hajduk Split to take over Kaiserslautern.

Bala, as he is known in Germany, has a total of 92 matches and 16 goals for the Bulgarian national team between 1988 and 2003. For Stuttgart, he has a total of 236 matches and 54 goals between 1995 and 2003.