"....thrown to Vassileva — ouch! Even the Brazilians groaned in sympathy there as a Bludger hit Vassileva hard in the throat."
-- match commentary, Bulgaria vs Brazil, 11 July 2014 (Pm)
Nikola Vassileva is a Chaser on Bulgaria’s National Team at the Quidditch World Cup tournament in 2014.
Vassileva and fellow Chasers, Stoyanka Grozda and Bogomil Levski, were members of the Bulgarian side in the 2014 tournament that included the famous Seeker Viktor Krum (Pm).
They had quite an easy first match against New Zealand as Kiwi Chaser Dennis Moon was sent off after a collision with Levski (Pm).
They played only 42 minutes against Norway due to Krum’s early catch of the Snitch (Pm).
The semi-final against Japan was a very difficult match but Bulgaria eventually won by 610 points to 460 (Pm).
Bulgaria were the winners of the tournament, beating Brazil by 170 points to 60. Vassileva scored the second of Bulgaria’s two goals during the match (Pm).
Other canon notes and references
As his teammate Viktor Krum, born 1976, was the oldest player at the tournament (Pm), Vassileva must have been born after 1976.
Commentary
Etymology
A form of Nicholas, Nikola comes from the Greek Νικολαος (Nikolaos) "victory of the people", derived from Greek νικη (nike) "victory" and λαος (laos) "people" (Behind the Name). In Bulgaria, Nicola is typically a masculine name; the feminine version is Nikol.
Vassileva (Bulgarian: Василева) means "daughter of Vasil", which comes from Basil and the Greek name Βασιλειος (Basileios) and βασιλευς (basileus) meaning "king" (Behind the Name).
Notes
Because Nikola is on the Bulgarian Quidditch team, we are making an assumption here that Nikola is a man, which is the Bulgarian usage. However, the name is originally Greek and is used for males and females in different cultures. The surname Vassileva is in a female form, so the player's gender is confusing.
Lexicon list of Chasers
From the Web
Writing by J.K. Rowling on Pottermore:
- History of the Quidditch World Cup
- 2014 Quidditch World Cup reports
- 2014 Quidditch World Cup final
- The Daily Prophet
Pottermore enhanced reading experience: Quidditch World Cup
Screenshots of the original Daily Prophet coverage of the 2014 Quidditch World Cup on Pottermore: Imgur archive
Harry Potter Wiki: Nikola Vassileva
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Tags: athletes competitions/competitors goals international match score sports teammates teams tournaments