In the beginning of 1998 Vasilev invited Mladenov to assist him in CSKA again. He was to assist along with Petar Zehtinski. Mladenov was to be the coach of the national youth team of Bulgaria as well.
„These have been one of the most important years in my coaching career – tells Stoycho -I was allowed to work on both places . I could contact with many world known football names .I could receive materials with the work of the best coaches. The boss of CSKA helped me to gain an internship in the team of Atletico where the coach was the football revolutionary – Arigo Saki. The Italian expert introduced the play with four deffenders in line. I had the opportunity to speak with the president of Atletiko Jesus Jill. I stayed for a month with the team. I managed to see how it has to be worked when your team plays every three days. Thanks to Krasimir Balakov I was able to observe the work of Felix Magatt in Stuttgar“
Vasilev is a great personality and helped me a lot in becoming a good coach. He keeps a distance between himself, the players and the management. CSKA sacked Vasilev after the 3:0 win against Spartak Pleven. At that time in the management there were people who were not acquainted with football. The reason for his sacking was that CSKA did not play beautiful football. I was offered to become a coach, but rejected and I think this was the right decision to take . „The next coach of CSKA was to be Zehtihnski, but he was destined not to succeed. Anyone who would take the team at that time whould receive the same result. The new coach after the end of the season was Dimitar Penev., and Ilia Pavlov insisted that I stay. My wish was to continue being a coach. I had this opportunity in the youth national team of Bulgaria and so I agreed to continue withPenev. By me in CSKA and in the national team played Stilian Petrov, Martin Petrov and Dimitar Berbatov. I am happy that I gave them an opportunity to start in football, as well as to Georgi Peev, Asen Bukarev, Velizar Dimitrov and Svetoslav Petrov. At the end of the season a crucial moment for CSKA came. Liuboslav Penev was persuaded to put an end to his player’s career and to become the president of the team. Out of the many talks with Ilia Pavlov I got the impression that he wanted to make CSKA a big team. We were on a camp in Germany and Dimitar Penev was called back. I was to train the team until Pavlov was replaced. The administrator at that time worked behind my back and made the players sign secretly contracts with the football club of Liubo Penev. So, Ilia Pavlov was left without a team. I continued working , but when I came back to Sofia, everybody went to Liubo Penev and I left CSKA .“