Dimitar Berbatov biography
Bulgarian football player
Place of birth: Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
Blagoevgrad (Gorna Dzhumaya) is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Blagoevgrad Province.
Height: 6 ft 2 in (1.89 m)
Playing position: Striker
Senior clubs
Years Club App (Gls)
CSKA Sofia 50 (25)
Bayer Leverkusen 152 (68)
Tottenham Hotspur 31 (11)
National team
Bulgaria 44 (31)
Senior club appearances and goalscounted for the domestic league only and correct as , 8 May 2007.
National team caps and goals correct as 23 April 2007.
Bulgarian Cup: 1999
Bulgarian Footballer of the Year: 2002, 2004, 2005
Bulgarian Fans’ Player of the Year: 2006
Has described former player Alan Shearer as role model.
Scored 2 goals in 2 minutes in his first match as a Tottenham player against Birmingham in a pre season friendly match.
Learned English language by watching Godfather films.
Lists his hobbies as drawing and basketball.
Berbatov was voted as one of the 10 Hottest Bulgarian Men of the Year, an award given by the Bulgarian NOVA TV tabloid show Goreshto (“Hot”)
Berbatov has been given the nickname of The Bulgarian Hitman for his deadly aim at goal.
Early life and career
Berbatov was born in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, near the border with Macedonia. His father was a pro footballer with local outfit Pirin Blagoevgrad, and his mother Margarita was a handball player. His career began at the same club, and continued until he was spotted by legendary scout and coach Dimitar Penev and, only 17, he moved to one of the most successful Bulgarian clubs CSKA Sofia following in the footsteps of his father, Ivan, who also played for the club as a left winger and later as a defender. He played for CSKA in the Bulgarian A PFG between 1998 and January 2001 making his debut as an 18 year old in the 1998-99 season. He started to make his name the following year when he scored 14 in 27 league games and won the Bulgarian National Cup in 1999. Berbatov did not enjoy a good relationship with the fans of the club. He was seen to have missed chances in crucial games, one example being in May 2000 when CSKA lost to arch rivals Levski and also lost the title, despite dominating the whole match.
Bayer Leverkusen
A run of nine goals in 11 games in 2000/01 was to persuade Bayer Leverkusen to sign Berbatov in January 2001. Berbatov had a slow start to his Leverkusen career with just 16 goals in his first 67 appearances for the club. He did play a crucial role in the Champions League during his first season with the club scoring a memorable solo effort against Lyon with an excellent bit of skill, as well as a goal against Liverpool in the quarter finals. He played a part in the Final against Real Madrid coming on as a substitute for Thomas Brdaric after 38 minutes.
In 2001-02 Leverkusen were runners up in the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal. During the 2002-03 Bundesliga season Berbatov established his place as the first choice forward at Bayer Leverkusen but it wasn’t until the 2003-04 season he really began to shine scoring 16 in 24 starts. The following two seasons saw him go from strength to strength, netting another 46 goals including 5 in the Champions League 2004-05 raising awareness of his talent and generating interest from teams through Europe.
Tottenham Hotspur FC
In May 2006, Berbatov joined English Premiership Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of €16m (£10.9 million), making him the most expensive Bulgarian player in history, more expensive than Valeri Bojinov (€13m) and Martin Petrov (€12m). After being granted a work permit, the transfer was completed, and Berbatov joined Tottenham on 1 July 2006.
Berbatov scored his first Tottenham Hotspur goal on a home debut in a Premiership game against Sheffield Utd at White Hart Lane. He built up a rewarding partnership with Robbie Keane in the UEFA Cup until Spurs’ departure to Seville in the quarter finals, and, despite Martin Jol’s rotation of his fellow strikers, Berbatov has firmly established himself as a first choice forward at the club. His experience in Europe is already reaping rewards for his new club. He scored five goals in four games during the group stage of the Uefa Cup, with his performances earning two man of the match awards in the group stages against Besiktas and Club Brugge. Despite good form in European competition, Berbatov took a while to adapt to the Premiership, however he soon began to regain the great league form he had shown at Leverkusen with an excellent performance against Wigan, scoring one and creating the other two in a 3 – 1 win. On December 9, 2006, Berbatov scored his first FA Barclays Premiership brace for Spurs in a 5-1 victory for his side against Charlton Athletic. Berbatov came on as a second half substitute against Fulham FC in the FA Cup to score his first two goals in the competition. Berbatov scored a first away goal in the Premiership at Goodison Park against Everton, a first time shot from around the penalty spot after an Aaron Lennon cross. Spurs won the match 2-1. On February 25 2007, Berbatov earned a Man Of The Match award in a 4 – 1 win against Bolton Wanderers after putting on a sensational performance which won him many plaudits, despite not scoring in the match. One remarkable factor about the match was Tottenham were reduced to 10 men after Robbie Keane was sent off in the first half, meaning Berbatov had to play the entire second half without a partner in attack, one of the few times he had been asked to do at Spurs. However he still managed one of his best Premier League performances yet, and in the month that followed began to firmly establish his reputation as one of the most skillful strikers in the Premiership.
Berbatov was also included in the FA Premier League’s PFA Team of the Season on April 21, 2007, one of only three players in the team not to play for league leaders Man Utd (the other two being Steven Gerrard and Didier Drogba).
Berbatov and Spurs team mate Robbie Keane where named joint winners of the FA Premier League Player of the Month award for April, the Spurs pair are the first players to share the award since Arsenal’s Dennis Bergkamp and Edu jointly claimed a award back in February 2004
He scored the 100th goal of Tottenham’s 2006/07 season with a first goal of a 2 – 0 victory over Charlton on May 7, 2007. This goal also helped condemned Charlton to relegation. Berbatov is also one of the few people to have two goals included in the BBC’s goal of the month competition shortlist, with efforts against Wigan Athletic and Middlesborough both recognised.
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