A year later, he was European champion in Vitoria, Spain, and in Friendship Games in Varna again became gold medalist to score much higher than the Olympic champion of Los Angeles.

From this it becomes clear that the boycott of Bulgaria at the Games in 1984 deprived Stoichkov of a well-deserved Olympic title.

Stoichkov is the winner of the European Weightlifting Cup for 1987 with the Bulgarian team in Miskolc, Hungary.

In the national team of Bulgaria he is trained by the legendary Ivan Abadzhiev.

Before that he was the coach of the national teams for juniors and cadets and won many medals from European Championships.