when you hear the name Dimitar batov what do you remember of the man you probably recall a great player on and off the ball Wicked flare a good reader of the game a lethal goal scorer and a legend no doubt but what if we told you what you remember isn't the complete picture what if we told you that by the expectations of a forward he was a rather lazy player it doesn't compute right and for good reasons too his work rate on the pitch was next to nothing he neither fought for the ball nor got
into the thick of things batov just coasted along waiting for everyone else to do all the work and hand him the ball on a platter but when that ball got to him the laziness the poor work rate all of that disappeared because batov became Magic In the Flesh it's why you never remember he wasn't the best player when the team was on the back foot but you sure remember his iconic goals and the magic he worked in the opponent's box when he had the ball his output overshadowed every everything else batov was known as a
luxury Striker you'd think the man would shy away from this perception of him but he leaned into it in an interview about his play style he responded those Without Beauty and Grace in them are powerless to win a heart one of his coaches once said everything he plucked out of the sky seemed to die on his toe but a controversial playing style wasn't the only side of Dimitar batov hardly he was many things an outcast a Target but UL ultimately a legend batov story began like your typical hero's journey alone unknown and in a small
patch he called home silly as it sounds his brand of lazy luxury football was the result of years of hard work in the jungles of Bulgaria first he started with an inflated pigs bladder then switched to a basketball the routine was simple throw everything in the air and control its descent with his foot every evening of every day he practiced year after year he must have tried hundreds thousands of times and if you're wondering what causes a young boy to torture himself like that well Berbatov was a sports Prodigy born to a professional footballer father
and a semi-pro handball mother he had athletic jeans already all he needed was where to channel it inspiration if you will for that all little BBA needed to see was the World Cup in which Bulgaria came away as fourth runner up thanks to stov but batov didn't want to become sto goof instead he idolized Alan Shira and Marco van butin he loved the English man for his lethality in front of goal but he loved the Elegance with which the Dutchmen played why choose one when he can have the best of both worlds and that was
how Dimitar batov was born a vintage forward with the flare of a butterfly the creativity of a raccoon and a predatory Instinct inside the Penalty Box akin to a bird of prey a one-of-a-kind player Berbatov was 18 when he joined his first Club cska Sophia he staged his claim on the team gradually first he scored six goals in his debut campaign followed by 16 The Following Season by his third season he was already slapping seven goals pis ball across two legs in the UEFA Cup by the end of the year Berbatov had played 15 matches
and scored 16 goals across all competitions however much like many stars today simply being good isn't good enough to get everyone on your side he had split the audience in two one half loved him perhaps a little too much while the other half blamed him for not helping the club top the league you'd think it was the crowd that disliked the Young Wonder kid that would get him in trouble but that was far from it what nearly got Berbatov in trouble was being too damn good it was a few months into the season and batov
was at CSK sopia's training complex by midday he decided to grab a bite and left the grounds as soon as he stepped out a black car approached him almost like it had been waiting for him the entire time a friend of his family was in the car and he urg the young Berber to get in he got in and followed his host to a restaurant upon entering the restaurant he found a lone figure sitting down to lunch surrounded by a bunch of huge tough looking men unknown to Berbatov he had been handed over to the
Bulgarian Mafia the man eating whom he was directed to speak with was none other than the infamous George ilv despite his ties to the criminal underworld ilv was an avid sports fan and the owner of a football club lki kendil the orders were simple Berbatov was great and leski kendil needed a player of his quality this wasn't a club chairman cting a player ahead of the transfer window no this was a life and death offer as one of berbatov's relatives recalled they would rather finish him than have him play for another club such an offer
in front of a tough crowd would make make a lot of us agree to the terms in a heartbeat but not batov his Persona on the pitch was the same as off the pitch cool calm and collected batov requested a phone call he rang his father who understood his son's situation and immediately reached down to Ilia Pavlov the owner of cska safia now Pavlov had strong ties to the criminal World being a Mafia Boss himself so he was able to convince ilv to let Berbatov go this was no Small Miracle the Bulgarian and criminal underbelly
was as Cutthroat as they come at the time in fact in a few short years ilv and Pavlov were in Pine boxes under the ground both taken out by snipers so Berbatov leaving unscathed was Monumental even though anticlimactic in the end whatever the case Berbatov never shared the full story with his family but that encounter lit within him a fire to take his football elsewhere out of Bulgaria for good berbatov's dream came came true with a switch to Germans side by lusen the club was in its best Years yet and was terrifying Europe with its
golden generation of stars by Michael ballock Z Roberto and Lucio fbov said he felt like the luckiest boy in the world to have joined the club at that time long before it was evident that Leverkusen were on their way to making history 6 months into his move he made his debut in a friendly match against DC United where he scored a hattick to put him on the manager's radar earning him a spot in the team as a rotation player by the 31st game of that season Berber had started 13 times and shipped 15 goals lusm
were high flying and sitting daintily at the top of the table four points ahead of second place the club had also made it to the Champions League final having beaten Manchester United Liverpool Arsenal and Juventus on the way Berbatov himself had chipped in with five goals in five matches everything seemed right with the world up until that moment verusen had never won the league and had but one trophy to their name now they were in Two finals and with the league in their grasp they were on the verge of a treble What followed next was
a level of bottling that would have made Arsenal and Tottenham applaud in awe Leverkusen went on to lose their next three matches losing the league to Dortmund and the German cup to Shuler all that was left was the Champions League the only problem was that the club standing between Leverkusen and the trophy was none other than than Real Madrid the golden generation of lusen was no match for the tested and proven galacticos of Los Blancos batov himself admitted that he was mesmerized by the players when standing next to them in the tunnel and despite towering
over Fernando IO Berbatov said it felt like looking at a mountain halfway into the match his fears were proved right as Zinedine zadan spanked in one of his best goals in a real Madrid shut and Leverkusen went on to lose the final after losing out on a treble he said he wanted to become the maradon of lusen but that was easier said than done because Bayern Munich poached balak and Z Roberto The Following Season the golden generation was starting to fall apart and nothing proved that more than the fact that Leverkusen were facing relegation with
two games left that season but batov was just getting started the next season B were back to fine form thanks to the Bulgarian who chipped in with 13 goals and eight assists in 18 matches is by the end of the campaign the club finished nine points off the top from that moment onward Berbatov ceased to be a fringe player he became the main man however there was only so much his good numbers could do because the lusen ship started to go down again they couldn't break into the top four again lots of clubs circled the
sinking ship picking it apart for its best players and batov was the prime target batov switched sides picking Tottenham out of the better clubs coming for his signature at the time they were a mid-table club that finished 11th in the league on average across 15 years and the last time the club paid in the Champions League Berbatov had not yet been born a huge step down from a highflying Leverkusen team Berbatov and Robbie Keane struck up a partnership that boarded on telepathic and kean's high work rate more than made up for bba's laidback style they
complemented each other well the Bulgarian admitted this himself saying Robbie ran all over the pitch so that could run in my head in his first season in England Berbatov pulled off even better numbers than in the Bundesliga making 38 goal contributions and averaging a goal every 102 minutes it's no surprise that he finished as tottenham's Player of the Year made it into the EPL team of the season and was nominated for the Balon door the cherry on top was helping Tottenham finish Fifth and they'd have won some silverware to had Spur's back line not been
as incompetent as goldfish Out of Water by his second year Berbatov scored a decisive goal in the League Cup Final to hand Tottenham their last trophy to date in 2 years he was having a swell time in North London surrounded by a team almost tailored to his playing style but he was 28 years old and had little to no silverware to show for his enterprising career doubt started to creep in when he considered leaving Tottenham then Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson picked this moment to tell the media that he planned to sign the Bulgarian
it made no sense for United to want Berber they had the best attacking Trio in the league in Cristiano Ronaldo Carlos TZ and Wayne Rooney all of whom played pacy attacking football with a high work rate what would Fergie want with a luxury Striker it's possible that the United boss only admitted to this to destabilize opponents and send a shock wave throughout the league for any of berbatov's admirers he was a master of Mind Games the Scotsman because that's exactly what happened the attention turned turned to berbatov's head and more clubs started to declare their
intent for him too Tottenham knew they' lost their man to the media frenzy when he requested to be left out of the team and would you believe it he landed in Manchester sometime later but he wasn't heading to Old Trafford no he was on his way to the blue half of Manchester then came Fergie again showing up at the airport and giving him a ride to United instead the two hung out for a few hours and by the end of the day batov had trade both City and Tottenham and signed for Manchester United United would
go on to have a brilliant season making it to the Champions League final however that was hardly due to berbatov's efforts he played a small part in that run and by his second season he was still unconvincing to the Old Trafford fateful critics and fans called him lazy and his performances hardly proved them wrong but that wasn't all his doing back in Bulgaria the mafia had struck again they approached his mother mother and requested half a million pound for her protection she refused of course but that only escalated things as the criminals then threatened to
kidnap Berber to's wife and daughter Berber knew that expecting another miracle on his second run in with the Bulgarian Mafia was pointless so he began contacting everyone he thought would help he was threatened not to involve the authorities as it was more than likely that the Bulgarian Internal Affairs Ministry was involved in the scheme what happened next is reminiscent of his first time facing down the mafia BBA called as a cucumber asked to borrow Sir Alex Ferguson's private jet to fly to Bulgaria when he arrived he set up a meeting and got his family to
safety without paying the ransom required no one knows how batov managed to talk them down a second time nor did he reveal the details of what happened you'd think that with everything he was going through Fergie would cut him some slack but you'll be wrong the difference between good and great managers is that the latter borders on in sanity and we all know Fergie was tremendous he was frustrated with the Bulgarian end product and started to show it thankfully the second coach reny Mullen Stein was more patient and understanding he saw a path to unlocking
batov in the Dutchman's words Berber wasn't a footballer he was an artist who happened to wear football boots Mullen Stein spoke with berberov and helped him get into the right head space see batov was at odds with the team because they played at a higher tempo than he could manage or was used to he was 30 at the time so changing playing Styles was out of the question M and steam was key to solving this dilemma he told batov you're like the best pianist in the world but you see those guys out there in the
training pitch they're the world's greatest Orchestra and they have a maestro who worked very hard to get them to play like this the only difference is that you play at a different Tempo match theirs and you'll win everything Berbatov took this advice and within a year of almost losing his family finished as the top scorer in the Premier League and enjoyed several brilliant performances across the season he scored 21 goals and racked up six assists United won The League trophy and bbaton finished in the team of the season he' done enough to earn Fergie's respect
that season and the manager compared him to Club Legend Eric gantar but that didn't stop Fergy from doing bber the greatest disservice despite having a staly year and having won the Golden Boot batov was excluded from what could have been the cherry on top of an eventful career the Champions League final he wasn't even on the bench he was left at home to watch as United lost that final things didn't improve much The Following Season Fergie was implementing a new style of play that prioritize pace and Berbatov was on the wrong side of 30 and
stuck with a playing style that was two decades too old for football of the 2010s he played 12 more matches before Fergy soft fired him batov for got the message and bowed out without a proper goodbye despite links to Tottenham Juventus Bayern and Fiorentina he opted for Fulham to join former Tottenham boss Martin yal then he went to Monaco PA and the Indian Super League before retiring bbop started working on his a biography soon afterward and asked Ferguson to write the forward despite the strained relationship between the two Fergie agreed easily and sent back his
part a few weeks later in it the Scotsman apologized for depriving batov of a chance to end his career on a high this begs the question would that final have ended differently with Berbatov in the squad I guess we'll never know don't forget to like comment subscribe and share yeah if you enjoyed this video
