In a recent podcast hosted by Rio Ferdinand, Berbatov recounted a thrilling experience when he was 18 years old playing for CSKA Sofia.

At that time, a teammate deceived him and drove him to meet the owner of another club. "I was performing really well on the pitch and starting to show what I can do. Normally when you perform well, other teams will be interested in you, make offers, ask how long your contract is until and how much the transfer fee will be, etc. But it was different in Bulgaria. There, they would say, 'It's him? Well, bring him here.'"

"After training, I didn't have a car. So a teammate said to me, 'Follow me, I need to bring him.'" You go meet a friend of mine. ’ I was a little naive, maybe because we were teammates, so I believed him and got in his car.”

“There were a lot of tables in the restaurant, and there were some big guys sitting at one of the other tables, and they just sat there and stared at you, and they looked scary.”

“The guy who took me there said, ‘Go over there. Go sit over there and see you later. ’ And the other guy said, ‘Come here, sit down. ’ I sat down and thought, ‘What’s going on? I need to call my dad. ’”

“The guy started talking, ‘You know what they call me? . I like it there. ’ He said, ‘We’ll figure it out. ’”

“The big guys were sitting there and I was thinking, ‘I need to call dad. ’ Finally, the guy asked me to call dad, and I said, ‘I’m in a place, I don’t know where. ’”

Berbatov was worried that if he refused the guy’s request, he might get beaten up. "I was talking to my dad real fast and he said to me, 'Calm down, take a breath.' I said, 'Oh my God, they're going to kidnap me, I don't want to be here, I want to go home.' He said, 'Okay, okay. I'll see what I can do. I'll give that Personal call. ’”

“Eventually, someone contacted someone, and the big guys from both clubs found a way to just stay put and wait for news.”

“In that case, 18 years old. I, knowing the special circumstances of Bulgaria at that time and the current situation, thought to myself that this is a critical moment for me. I have to say yes, otherwise they might beat me, or I don't know what will happen."

"But. Finally, my dad came and took me out of there, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m saved. ’ It made me realize that I needed to grow up quickly and become a man.”

This happened in the late 1990s. In 2001, Bayer Leverkusen brought Berbatov to Germany from CSKA Sofia for more than 1 million euros.

The talented forward was not an instant success, but he eventually proved his quality, participating in the Champions League final in his first full season with Leverkusen and scoring numerous goals.

In 2006, Tottenham signed Berbatov. Two years later, Manchester United introduced him with a club-record transfer fee of 30.75 million pounds. Berbatov turned down an offer from Manchester City and chose to join Old Trafford, where he made 149 appearances, won two Premier League titles and shared the Golden Boot with Rooney in the 2010-11 season.