Lent.az
Dimitar Berbatov recently appeared on Rio Ferdinand's podcast and shared a horrific episode from his life.
Lent.az reports, citing foreign media, that this happened when Dimitar was 18 years old and playing for Sofia's OMİK team. A teammate suggested that he go with him to visit a friend. According to Berbatov, this was a man of the famous mobster Georgi Iliev.
"Of course, I was a little naive. Or maybe I trusted him because we played on the same team. So I got into his car. He took me to a restaurant. There was a guy sitting at one table. At the other three tables behind him were large, typical Balkan guys, and they looked scary," he emphasized.
"The person who brought me there said something like, 'Come here, sit down.' I'm sitting there thinking, 'What's going on? What's going on? I have to call my father, I have to call my father,' he continued.
"We want you on our team. We have to take you." And I said: "Yes, but I play for Sofia OMİK. I like it there."
He said: "We'll take care of it. Don't worry."
I sat there for two or three hours and finally they let me call my father," Dimitar continued.
"I thought, 'This is the end. They can beat me, or..."
Apparently, they were never able to take advantage of this intimidation, because after OMİK Sofia, Berbatov moved to Bayer Leverkusen in 2001.
