With a promising career ahead of him, Dimitar Berbatov recalls how the then-CSKA Sofia striker was captured by a group of men trying to move him from club to club.
Former Manchester United and Tottenham star Dimitar Berbatov was once taken hostage in an attempt to force him to change clubs.
The former Bulgarian international was still a teenager in his home country when the incident occurred and had offered a trade to CSKA Sofia. Berbatov, who joined United from Spurs for £30.75m in 2008, was taken to a restaurant by his team-mates after training, where he was accosted by a group of men believed to be members of gangster Georgi Iliev, and held captive for several hours in an attempt to force him to move to rivals.
Berbatov, who starred in the Premier League and also represented Fulham, said on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast: “I was playing for CSKA Sofia and I was really starting to show my qualities. And usually when you show your qualities as a player, teams will come and make you an offer and ask you how long the contract is, how much the acquisition cost, etc.”
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“But back home it was much different. Back home, it was like, ‘Him? Okay, bring him here.’
“I didn’t have a car, so my teammates came up to me after training and said, ‘Come with me. I need to take you to a friend.'” Of course, I was a little naive. And maybe I trusted him because we played on the same team. So I get into his car. He drove me to the restaurant.
“When we entered the restaurant, there were obviously tables in the restaurant, and at one table there was a guy sitting by himself. And at the other three tables, there was a big guy, a refrigerator, and a typical Vulcan guy sitting behind him, just looking scared.”
“And the guy who took me there was like, ‘Go over there, sit down, I’ll see you later.'” And the guy was like, “Come over here and sit down.”
“I’m sitting there and I’m like, in my mind, I’m thinking, ‘What’s going on? What’s going on? I need to call my dad, I need to call my dad.’
“And the guy started talking. He was like, ‘Do you know what they call me?'” Now, in English, it would probably go something like this, they call me Cook.
“I’m like, Okay, ‘So we know you, we need to change the team. We want you in the team, we need to get you.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but I play for CSKA Sofia.’ I mean, I like it there. ”
“He said, ‘We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.'” And the guys are sitting there, and I’m just like, of course, freaking out. So I sat there for probably two or three hours, but eventually the person let me call my dad.
“And I’m like calling my dad and saying, ‘I’m here. I don’t know where I am. All the people around me, the great people.'” I was talking really fast, and he was like, “Calm down, breathe.” Stay calm and just breathe. ”
“And I was like, ‘Oh my god? They’re going to kidnap me here, I don’t want to go, I want to go home.'” And he was like, “Okay, okay.” Let’s see what I can do. I’ll try calling that person. ‘So eventually somebody called somebody and the big guys on the two teams figured out a way for me to not move and just stay there.
“In that situation, as an 18-year-old and knowing what was going on in Bulgaria at the time, I was thinking, ‘This is it for me. Maybe they’ll beat me, or I don’t know.’
“But eventually my dad came and gave me a ride in the car and I thought, ‘Oh my god.’ It made me realize really early in life that I needed to grow up and become a man.”
Listen to the full interview with Rio Meets Dimitar Berbatov on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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