Dimitar Berbatov: When football becomes an art. The story of the Bulgarian elegance and technical genius

Dimitar Berbatov is the best player Bulgarian football has ever produced. He may not be one of the world’s greatest legends, but no one can question his quality. He has often been criticised for his ‘lazy’ style of play, but he has been a joy to watch. He was like an artist, almost every move he made was brilliant. What was his story?

“Lazy genius” didn’t have it easy. He was kidnapped, had to go into exile for the fans

Dimitar Berbatov was a brilliant striker with an incredible mind. He was undoubtedly one of the most technically gifted footballers of his generation. Unfortunately, he’s not talked about much. After his retirement, you won’t come across his name very often.

As already mentioned, he was a man of great technique and brilliant thinking. He may not have been a running footballer, but when the ball was flying at him, you knew things were going to happen. And it didn’t matter where he was playing. Nobody had a better first touch, his illegibility terrified all opponents.

He had two football role models. His father played for CSKA Sofia, the biggest team in Bulgaria. Plus, he arranged a meeting with the legendary Hristo Stoichkov. So it was no surprise that his dream was to play in Sofia. And he soon did.

But it wasn’t easy. It was obvious that Berbatov was a great talent. He’d been with the team since he was 17. He scored 26 goals in 49 league games, dragging the team along, but it was not going well. The promising striker only won a trophy with the team and the fans took their anger out on him.

Berbatov was blamed for the club not winning the league. His dream became a nightmare. To make matters worse, he was kidnapped at the age of 18 by gangster Georgi Iliev. The reason? He wanted her to sign a contract at his club, FC Levski Kjustendil. But he refused.

“It was a difficult time. Kidnapping, booing… When the fans turn against you, it’s hard to accept. You start thinking about the future. Itmade me leave the country,” he was quoted by PAOK Thessaloniki’ s club website.

The Bulgarian legend admitted, among other things, that she was more or less forced to leave the country. The top scorer in the history of the Bulgarian national team admitted that he felt like he was in exile.

He has made his mark on Leverkusen’s club history

It was January 2001 when Bayer Leverkusen completed one of the best transfers in the club’s history. Dimitar Berbatov moved for €2.5 million. The Bulgarian elegance spent five years with the team, during which he proved that he could play at the best clubs on the planet.

After all, just a summary of his numbers is quite telling – 202 competitive games 91 goals, 34 assists. He is the third top scorer in the club’s history, no foreign player has scored as many goals for Leverkusen.

Berbatov has regularly ranked among the Bundesliga’s top scorers, but he has never achieved the crown of top scorer. During his time in Germany, stars such as Miroslav Klose and Roy Makaay played in the top flight.

Although he did not win anything with Bayer, no one can deny him a place in the Champions League final in 2002. He is a legend at the club.

Moreover, his first coach at Leverkusen revealed how much the situation he experienced in Sofia weighed on Berbatov. “Those few seconds when he had the ball, it was as if no problems existed. But the rest of the time it was as if he was carrying the world on his shoulders,” Klaus Toppmöller expressed.

It is worth mentioning that in 2004 Baník Ostrava recognised his qualities in the Champions League qualifiers. In two matches Bayer defeated the Silesian side 6:2 and Berbatov scored two goals.

His genius has finally been noticed in England

Dimitar Berbatov has been asking for a better engagement with his performances in the Leverkusen jersey. And he more or less got it when Tottenham bought him for less than 16 million euros in 2006. So he was in for a big test.

The Premier League then was much more about duels than it is today. Tottenham, moreover, were not one of the teams to be reckoned with among the top. Moreover, he didn’t have bad competitors in his squad. Legends like Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane were fighting for a place at the top.

But the Bulgarian was able to assert himself. He was also pleased that he was able to entertain a slightly larger number of fans thanks to the huge viewership of the Premier League all over the world and gained a lot of attention.

Even Prague Slavia with Martin Vaniak in goal got to know his qualities. He scored one goal and assisted one in the double-header. Vaniak had to make some sensational saves against him.

And Berbatov’s record? Great again – 102 games, 46 goals, 29 assists. Plus he won a trophy, with Spurs he went on to win the League Cup.

No wonder he moved to the most prestigious address in England, Old Trafford, after two years. As Champions League and Premier League winners, Manchester United signed him as the most expensive footballer in the club’s history at the time.

The Old Trafford engagement is not easy to assess

It was the last day of the transfer window in September 2008. Dimitar Berbatov had become the most expensive player in Manchester United’s history. Sir Alex Ferguson did not hesitate to pay over €30 million for him. He considered the Bulgarian one of the most exciting and best strikers in the world.

However, in the end, this engagement is very difficult to evaluate. For many reasons. It was expected to be a reinforcement that would score goal after goal. But that’s not quite what happened.

Moreover, Ferguson often left Berbatov on the bench. The reason for this could have been the previously mentioned (un)runnability. However, no one can take one thing away from the Bulgarian star. In the 2011/12 season, it was Berbatov who shot Manchester United to the Premier League title and was the competition’s top scorer.

Overall, he played 149 games for the Red Devils with a record of 56 goals and 27 assists. But you really can’t judge this engagement based on numbers. At least not if you want to understand the Bulgarian elegance.

He read in a book that if anything doesn’t have beauty and grace, you can’t win any heart. And that’s why he didn’t care so much about how many goals or assists he scored, but how many beautiful actions he scored. That’s why he was truly a joy to watch.

Then, when Berbatov had his day, the opponent was unlucky. He scored five goals against Blackburn, and he scored a phenomenal hat-trick against Liverpool.

He left an unforgettable mark on Manchester United. Albeit with the bitterness of unfulfilled potential. However, he won 8 trophies and in that respect it was his best engagement.

Then came the decline

Dimitar Berbatov spent four years at Old Trafford. After that, his career was more of a “just” a few years. However, his stints at Fulham and Monaco should not be seen as a flop. On the contrary.

At Fulham, he showed that he can still play at the highest level. Especially in the first of the two seasons. In that one he scored 15 goals, and again some of them were truly spectacular. In total, he played 54 games, scoring 20 goals and adding 6 assists.

Fulham didn’t count on him and he left for Monaco. But injuries and increasing age started to affect the phenomenal Bulgarian’s career. He showed great technique again, but his impact on the team was not as much as the management would have liked.

At the end of his career, Berbatov played for PAOK Thessaloniki and Kerala Blasters in India. However, it was no great glory.

However, he put up excellent numbers in his career. He scored more than 250 goals at club level and also added more than 100 assists. He retired from football at the age of 38.

He also did well in the national team. He scored 48 goals in 78 games for Bulgaria and is the all-time top scorer for his country. He led his team to EURO 2004, unfortunately it was the only championship he participated in.

Source: Berbatov.com, PAOK, Twitter, Transfermarkt