Bulgarian football legend and magician Dimityar Berbatov talks about his time as a player at Manchester United.
After an impressive start to his Old Trafford career with 14 goals and 11 assists in his first season, he was surprisingly dropped from both the 11-goal and team-of-the-match when Manchester United faced Barcelona in the 2011 Champions League Final.
Putting words to the biggest deficit of his career: Dimitar Berbatov. Photo: NTB Scanpix
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Instead, manager Sir Alex Ferguson picked Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez at the front, with Michael Owen on the bench and Berbatov in the stands.
– I remember Ferguson calling me saying: “Amazighs, this is killing me, but I have to leave you out of the team.” It was painful to hear that. I was very surprised, says Berbatov Manchester Evening News.
Tough choices: Sir Alex Ferguson. Photo: NTB Scanpix
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– It was hard to handle. I was fit and confident and felt like I could score from anywhere. I finally tried to make sense of the decision. Someone had to be sacrificed, and choosing a manager was not easy. I saw how hard it was for Sir Alex to tell me the news, says the technically gifted Bulgarian.
Berbatov notes that he apologized to Ferguson for the wreck in the 2011 Champions League final, which, by the way, Barcelona won 3-1, and says that the relationship with the Scottish managerial legend is good today.
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