His success during the 1994 World Cup led him to a move to German club Hamburger SV, a team which he captained for a brief period.

Following his successful stay at Eintracht Frankfurt, Houbtchev was hired by the former Stuttgart, Bayern Munich and Fulham manager Felix Magath to take the wheel of the VfL Wolfsburg U23 formation.

Hubchev managed the team to a surprise appearance in the 2010 Bulgarian Cup Final by eliminating Minyor Pernik with 2–0 in the quarter-final and Kaliakra Kavarna (4–1 after penalties) respectively.

Chernomorets Pomorie lost the final 0–1 against Beroe Stara Zagora after conceding a late goal just before extra time was to commence.

Under his command the Bulgaria national team put up one of their best performances in recent years, beating the Netherlands 2–0 as well as Sweden 3–2 in Sofia for the 2018 World Cup Qualification.

This ultimately resulted in securing two important playoff games for the 2020 UEFA Euro qualification against Hungary and the winner between Iceland/Romania.

During his spell, the Bulgaria national team managed to achieve several decent wins against prominent and strong sides such as Sweden, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Cyprus, securing an average of 1.45 points per match.

Under Hubchev, the team first managed to avoid relegation and furthermore qualified for the UEFA Conference League play-off, that was narrowly lost against Botev Plovdiv.