Manchester United hero Dimitar Berbatov chose not to swap shirts with his opponents – but made one exception to his rule and had to beg a team-mate for help. The Bulgarian striker scored 56 goals for United in four seasons and made 149 appearances during the most successful years of his career.
Berbatov started his career with home-town club CSKA Sofia before his scoring form attracted European suitors and Bayern Leverkusen eventually secured his signature. Despite having a mentality of not swapping shirts with his opponents, the young striker was in awe of Brazilian legend Ronaldo and made an exception to his rule on one occasion.
German side Leverkusen were drawn against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu giving Berbatov a chance to claim the shirt of legend Ronaldo. However, the Belarusian had to ask a Brazilian team-mate for some help in prising Ronaldo of his shirt.
Talking during an interview with BT Sport, the United legend said: “I never swapped a shirt in my life when I used to play football. Why? I did not care about who I played with. Obviously, I have respect for everybody. But I was more constrained or winning.
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“But once in a while, there’s a player that you want their shirt. Ronaldo was one of these guys. He was phenomenal. We all know that. We played at the Bernabeu with Leverkusen. I was very shy back in the day, but I wanted his shirt. We drew 1-1. I scored.
“And I didn’t have the heart, and my shyness was in my way to ask him for the shirt. So I played with a teammate who was Brazilian. ‘Please, please, please go to him’. This is happening after the game. ‘Go to him and say I want a shirt, please’. Five minutes later, I’m sitting there praying, ‘Please, please, please’. He brings my shirt. The one shirt I wanted.”
Berbatov also idolised another No 9 who retired the season before Berbatov arrived in the Premier League. Alan Shearer scored 260 Premier League goals with Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United and retired in 2006 – the season before Berbatov signed for Tottenham Hotspurs.
Berbatov added: “Seeing the Newcastle shirt, of course, the memories. This is the guy who I was worshipping [Shearer], still worshipping to this day. He was the reason that I wanted to score goals. Obviously, Shearer was not a big technician on the ball, going past people with some tricks. He would just bully his way past defenders; elbows, headers… It didn’t matter as long as the ball ended up in the back of the net.”
You can watch Tottenham v Manchester United live on BT Sport 1 from 7pm on Thursday 27th April. For more information, visit btsport.com
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