Dimitar Berbatov
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70%Born
1981 (43 years old)
Birth Place
Blagoevgrad, BulgariaPosition
Centre-Forward
Status
Ethnicity
Team Number
Height
189 cm
Weight
79 kg
Outfitter
Kit
Side
Agent
Market Value
Retired
Wage Year
Player Manager ID
127825
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Player Action Render
Sport
SoccerTeam
_Retired Soccer
2nd Team
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_No League Soccer
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Dimitar Ivanov Berbatov (Bulgarian: Димитър Иванов Бербатов; born 30 January 1981) is a Bulgarian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Known for his technique and ball control, Berbatov is regarded as one of the greatest Bulgarian players of all time. He captained the Bulgaria national team from 2006 to 2010 and is the nation’s top goalscorer.
Born in Blagoevgrad, Berbatov started out with his home-town club Pirin before joining CSKA Sofia as a 17-year-old in 1998. He was signed by Bayer Leverkusen of Germany in January 2001 and played in his first Champions League final 18 months later, coming on as a substitute in the 2002 UEFA Champions League Final, which Leverkusen lost 2–1 to Real Madrid.
After five-and-a-half years with Leverkusen, he joined English club Tottenham Hotspur in July 2006, where he spent two years before moving to Manchester United. He played in his second Champions League final in 2009, during his side's 2–0 defeat against Barcelona. After four seasons with United, during which time he won two Premier League titles in 2008–09 and 2010–11, as well as the Premier League Golden Boot in 2010–11, he joined Fulham in August 2012. He had later spells in France with Monaco, Greece with PAOK, and India with Kerala Blasters, before retiring in 2019.
Berbatov made his debut for Bulgaria on 17 November 1999, aged 18. He represented Bulgaria at Euro 2004 which was the only major tournament he played at for his country, owing to the team's failure to qualify for other tournaments. Berbatov captained the team from 2006 until May 2010, when he announced his retirement from international football, leaving his tally for Bulgaria standing at 48 goals from 78 matches. He won the Bulgarian Footballer of the Year a record seven times, surpassing the number of wins by Hristo Stoichkov.
Berbatov was born on 30 January 1981 in Blagoevgrad to Ivan Berbatov and Margarita Berbatova, both professional athletes themselves: Ivan was a footballer with Pirin and CSKA Sofia, while Margarita was a handball player. His father and mother worked in a tobacco factory and nursing, respectively, after their sporting careers; during the hardship of the final years of communism in Bulgaria, Berbatov did not have a football and had to practice with a basketball or a pig bladder. Growing up, Berbatov supported Italian club Milan, and he modelled himself after Marco van Basten, their famous Dutch forward. He also idolised England and Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer.
Berbatov made his debut for Bulgaria on 17 November 1999, aged 18, when he came on as a substitute for Aleksandar Aleksandrov in a 1–0 friendly loss against Greece. He scored his first goal for his country on 12 February 2000 in another friendly defeat, 3–2 against Chile, and represented Bulgaria at Euro 2004. This was the only major tournament he played at for his country, owing to the team's failure to qualify for other tournaments. In 2007, he scored two goals in the final of the Cyprus International Football Tournament against the host nation, Cyprus, to give Bulgaria a 3–0 win and Berbatov his only international title with the national team. He scored a hat-trick in the 6–2 home win in a 2010 World Cup qualification match against Georgia in October 2009, enabling him to bring his goal tally for the national side to 46 goals, just one short of the then all-time top scorer for Bulgaria, Hristo Bonev; after scoring two goals against Malta during a 4–1 friendly away win during the following month, he took the record.
Berbatov captained the team from 2006 until May 2010, when he announced his retirement from international football, leaving his tally for Bulgaria standing at 48 goals from 78 matches. In February 2012, newly appointed Bulgaria head coach Lyuboslav Penev revealed that Berbatov was willing to consider coming out of international retirement and participate in an upcoming friendly against Hungary. Berbatov eventually decided against accepting a call-up for the match, as he didn't feel that he was in top shape, but at the time did not rule out a return to the national side at some point in the future. In September 2012, he reconfirmed his international retirement.
Berbatov maintained a private family life outside the pitch, kept a small inner circle of confidants and rarely socialised with his teammates. He learned to speak English by watching the American Godfather series of films; outside football, he lists his hobbies as drawing and basketball. Berbatov is a sponsor of children's charities in his native Bulgaria, supporting five care homes. He is also the founder of the Dimitar Berbatov Foundation, which helps young people to develop their talents. Berbatov's long-time girlfriend, Elena, gave birth to their first child, a girl named Dea, on 15 October 2009 at a hospital in Sofia. In November 2012, he had his second daughter, Elia.
Berbatov claims that at the age of eighteen, he was held hostage with plans of making him sign for Georgi Iliev's football team, Levski Kyustendil. Berbatov's father contacted CSKA Sofia's boss Iliya Pavlov who set things straight. In 2009, reports emerged that Berbatov was forced to leave Bulgaria, since local mafia threatened to kidnap his family. In November 2018, Berbatov officially unveiled his autobiography По моя начин (In my own way). The foreword was written by former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who apologised for leaving Berbatov out of the 2011 UEFA Champions League final.
Career Honours
Career Milestones
 English Premier League Hat-Trick 2010-09-19 |
Former Youth Teams
1998-1998 |
Former Senior Teams
1998-2001 |
1999-2010 |
2001-2006 |
2006-2008 |
2008-2012 |
2012-2014 |
2014-2015 |
2015-2016 |
2017-2018 |
Former Club Staff
2021-2021 Coach |
Contracts
Fanart
Banner
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| Manchester United | Appearances | English Premier League | 2010-2011 | 32 |
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| Manchester United | Assists | English Premier League | 2010-2011 | 4 |
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| Manchester United | Goals | English Premier League | 2010-2011 | 20 |
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