Now at the peak of his career, The Godfather fan Dimitar Berbatov opted to remain at Tottenham Hotspur during the January transfer window. But how long will it be before the Bulgarian, who is determined to reach the very pinnacle of the game, receives “an offer he can’t refuse”?
The first transfer fee for Berbatov was not paid in cash: instead CSKA Sofia handed over 20 pairs of football boots to his local team, Pirin. Today, it would probably need the entire annual output of one of the leading boot manufacturers to come close to affording the Bulgarian striker, who has established himself as one of the most sought-after forwards in the game.
The original deal did not turn out to be such a bad move for Pirin, the club based in Berbatov’s home town of Blagoevgrad in the south west of the country, as they picked up handsome percentages from sell-on clauses when he was sold to Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga for GBP 1.56 million and then later to Tottenham for GBP 10.8 million.
By that time, Berbatov had become the pin-up of Bulgarian football, with film-star looks (he is the image of Andy Garcia and an avid fan of The Godfather trilogy of films, but is more a fan of Robert de Niro) and blessed with a combination of skill and level-headedness that has propelled him into the very top level of his profession.
Indeed, the 27-year-old is one of the very few players who can have his pick of the biggest clubs in the world — even if for the time being at least he insists he is more than happy playing for Tottenham in the English Premier League.
Berbatov’s sporting prowess was in his genes. His father Ivan played on the left wing and in defence for CSKA while his mother Margarita was a renowned athlete and handball player. The boy Dimitar excelled at many sports including long jump and running, but by the age often he had shown enough promise at football to be enrolled in Pirin’s football school.
He modelled himself on another tall, slim and skilful striker: Marco van Basten, then at AC Milan, though the young Berbatov was also enthralled by Alan Shearer’s exploits for England at EURO ’96. Aged 17, he was spotted by Bulgaria’s legendary coach Dimitar Penev and signed for CSKA; the fee of 20 pairs of boots has also become legendary.
There were good and bad times in Sofia, however. Although just a teenager, Berbatov established himself as an excellent goalscorer, yet he also bore the brunt of the criticism in 2001 when the club were narrowly beaten to the title by city rivals Levski. As a result, he received threats on his mobile phone, while angry fans shouted abuse at both him and his mother.
CRUCIAL ROLE AT BAYER
Berbatov, known as “Mitko” to his family, considered giving up the game; instead, Bayer Leverkusen made their interest known and he jumped at the chance to move to Germany. In his first full season, still only aged 21, Berbatov was rewarded with an appearance as a substitute in the 2002 Champions League final against Real Madrid. He had played a crucial role in the German side reaching the final too, having scored against Liverpool in the quarter-final.
By 2003-04, Berbatov had cemented his position as first-choice striker and in the following two seasons scored 46 goals. When the big-money move to Tottenham came, many wondered how he would adapt to the more physical game in England. The answer was swift in coming. Seven minutes into his first match at White Hart Lane, he scored against Sheffield United and a further 22 goals followed in his first season. But with his success came die interest of other clubs, many of them regulars in the Champions League whose coaches remembered his qualities in Europe with Leverkusen.
Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United was among those reported to have tried to make The Godfather fan “an offer he can’t refuse” and for much of the most recent January transfer window speculation swirled around Berbatov constantly. But the striker decided to remain at Tottenham, persuaded that under new Spanish coach Juande Ramos the untapped potential in the club could finally be released.
A LEADING ROLE
After the transfer window closed, the Tottenham fans sung his name in joy and relief, causing Berbatov a mixture of pride and embarrassment. He admits: “Those songs often make me feel a bit uncomfortable. After all, it’s the team that deserves the credit, I cannot do anything without them. I feel great at the club. I am respected. We have lots of fun on the pitch. I’ve always done right by the teams I’ve played for. Who knows what the future holds; I’m happy at Tottenham and I’m glad the speculation is over as all these talks and rumours start messing with your head. I like the Premier League and the fact that every team can beat every other one – I like the games being unpredictable.”
It took less than a month for Berbatov’s decision to pay off as he helped Tottenham land their first trophy since 1999, beating Chelsea 2-1 in the final of the Carling Cup. Berbatov played a leading role too, scoring the penalty that hauled Tottenham back on level terms. It was a classic Berbatov moment, keeping his cool superbly and waiting for Petr Cech to commit himself before sliding the ball into the opposite corner and, “back bing!”, as Sonny Corleone put it, Chelsea’s hopes were soon swimming with the fishes.
BETTER THAN STOICHKOV
“It was an indescribable feeling when the final whistle blew,” said a smiling Berbatov in the players’ tunnel at Wembley afterwards. “Everyone was happy and it was great to see so many smiles. It’s a major trophy and we wanted European football again. The manager is a winner and he knows how to win things. This is his first trophy and I hope it’s the first of many.”
If club football has been an enduring tale of success for Berbatov, there have been mixed fortunes for him with the national side. From a personal point of view, Berbatov can point to the fact that he is now the second-highest scorer of all time for Bulgaria, having recently overtaken the legendary Hristo Stoichkov with 39 goals in 62 internationals, and Hristo Bonev’s tally of 47 looks well within his grasp.
Yet from a team perspective, Bulgaria failed to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ and did not make this year’s UEFA European Championship finals. That is viewed as unacceptable in a country that as recently as 1994 made the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup™ thanks to the golden generation coached by Penev and inspired by Stoichkov.
Berbatov, who is captain of the national side, has felt that failure personally, and the qualification tournament for the 2010 finals in South Africa is of huge significance. There is fresh hope now. Penev, that mighty influence of the mid-1990s, is back as coach of Bulgaria once more and there another chance awaits for Dimitar Berbatov to parade his talents on the world stage.

Bojan Krkic
Full name: Bojan Krkic Perez
Born: 28 August 1990 in Linyola, Spain
Nationality: dual (Spain and Serbia)
Position: forward
Height: 1 72 m
Weight: 65kg
Clubs: until 1998: Bellpuig. Since 1999: Barcelona.
Honours: 2007: European U-17 Championship winner (and player of the tournament) and runner-up in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Korea. First-division debut: 16 September 2007. UEFA Champions League debut: 19 September 2007. 800 goals for Barcelona at youth level!

The Striker Who Has Got The Lot

Spanish born but of Serbian descent, 17-year-old Bojan Krkic has already made a name for himself at Barcelona and earned a call-up to the Spanish national team. Many consider him a superstar in the making.
Unlike many teenagers who only start to think about career choices on finishing school, 17-year-old Bojan Krkic, who is half-Serbian but was born in Linyola (Catalonia) had known what he wanted to be from the age of nine: not only a footballer, but a goalscorer and an insatiable one at that. His record of 800 goals at youth level for Barcelona, many of which have been filmed and posted on the internet, are the most tangible evidence of the player that Bojan could become in the not-too-distant future and he is already one of the most promising talents in football and the recipient of a Barcelona first-team squad number (27).
It only took a few games last season for him to be fast-tracked into playing first-division football and during a summer tour of Scotland in 2007, Barcelona’s Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard decided not to loan him out but instead drafted him into the senior squad for this season, in which by early March he had already played 32 matches, starting ten of them and scoring five goals.
All Bojan’s team-mates agree on one thing: he is the complete striker and lives to score goals, but is no lesser a technical player for that. Quite the contrary: he can both play and bring others into the game. He scores hatfuls of goals, but he also helps out his team-mates if necessary or if one of them is in a better position. He has already won over the Barcelona
fans, who give him a standing ovation every time he warms up as a substitute and are happy when the absence of one of Barcelona’s top-quality forwards creates a slot for Bojan in the starting line-up.
800 GOALS!
Bojan Krkic’s story began when his father, Bojan Sr, a former footballer from Serbia who played for Catalonian club Mollerusa and before that, Red Star Belgrade and OFK Belgrade, fell in love with Maria Lluisa Perez, a nurse from Lerida, Catalonia. After hanging up his boots, Krkic Sr became a scout for Barcelona, then joined the technical staff.
This is the atmosphere in which Bojan Krkic grew up as he progressed from Bellpuig, a club in the very youngest age group, to the Barcelona youth system, where he scored 800 goals (at an impressive average of 3.5 goals per match), thus quickly exciting curiosity in the Barcelona set-up and prompting the decision – similar to Dutch club Ajax’s policy of fast-tracking outstanding young players – to promote him to a higher playing level so that he could get used to playing with older, stronger and more powerful team-mates and accelerate his development.
At “Children’s A” level, Bojan had shown his character by clinching the league in the 95th minute of the final match, but it was at “Cadets A” level, where he scored 32 goals in 26 matches, that he really came to prominence, earning himself promotion to “Youth B”, then “Youth A”, where his goal against Badalona on the last day of the season won his club the title.
After scoring six goals in six matches, he was promoted to the Barcelona B team in the Spanish Segunda B (third division). They had been looking for a goalscorer and found the player they needed right under their noses.
“I DON’T MIND”
Bojan seemed the perfect solution and he repaid the club’s faith by scoring 14 goals at the age of 16 at a level where some players had already turned professional. On the basis of that record and some impressive performances for the Spanish U-17 side, Rijkaard began to gently break him into the senior Barcelona side. Bojan’s baptism of fire came during Barcelona’s summer tour of Scotland in preparation for the 2007-08 season. It was there that the Dutchman realised that he, together with the Mexican, Giovanni Dos Santos, were ready for the first-team squad and decided not to loan him out to another team and include him in his plans, thus placing a great deal of faith in him.
Bojan’s first-team debut came against Egyptian side Al Ahly on 24 July 2007 (and included a goal) and on 16 September 2007 he made his Spanish top-flight debut, thus becoming the third-youngest player to represent Barcelona in a first-division match. Three days later, he made his first appearance in the UEFA Champions League against Lyon, coming on for Lionel Messi, whom he already knew from La Masia, Barcelona’s youth academy.
A natural goalscorer, Bojan does not appear to have problems with either attacking the goal or playing side-on to it and although he is willing to play on the wing, he is clearly a centre forward. “I also like playing on the wing because I can run with the ball, but as long as I’m playing, I don’t mind where,” he says.
HALTED BY DIZZY SPELL
In the Spanish junior teams, Bojan soon forged a reputation as a goalscorer with excellent technique, particularly at U-17 level where he won the European Championship and helped Spain to the final of the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2007 in Korea. Despite winning the Bronze Ball as the tournament’s third-best player and the Bronze Shoe as the third-highest goalscorer with five goals, he also endured the bitterest moment of his short but intense career when he was sent off in the semi-final against Ghana for two yellow-card offences and thus missed the final against Nigeria in Seoul, as a result of which Spain’s chances of victory also suffered a blow.
However, thanks to his performances at youth level and the excellent reports from national youth team coach Inaki Saez, he was brought to the attention of senior national team coach Luis Aragones. His growing popularity and consistent performances for Barcelona earned a call-up to the Spanish senior side last February to make his debut in a friendly against France. Unfortunately, he suffered a dizzy spell a few days before the match and was unable to play. At 17 years, five months and nine days he would have been the youngest debutant in the history of the Spanish national team, surpassing the Basque, Angel Zubieta (17 years, nine months and nine days, dating back to 1936) and Cesc Febregas of Arsenal (18 years and 10 months).
Far from lamenting his bad luck, Bojan continues to grow both as a player and in the estimation of Barcelona fans, to the extent that he has surprised himself. “I didn’t expect it to happen so soon and I have to thank the club and the people,” he says without a hint of nervousness. “I know that you have to take it step by step, as Rijkaard has been doing, and I completely agree and am very comfortable with that,” he says with the same assuredness with which he also recalls that he had already decided what he wanted to be by the age of nine: a goalscorer.

Manuel Pellegrini

Full name: Manuel Luis Pellegrini Ripamonti
Born: 16 September 1953 in Santiago
Nationality: Chilean
Nickname: “The Engineer”
Clubs as a player: 1973-1986: Universidad de Chile (451 appearances) Honours as a player: 1979: Chilean cup winner. 28 caps for Chile, 1 goal. Career as a coach: 1987-1989: Universidad de Chile. 1990-1991: Palestino 1990-1991: Chilean U-20 team. 1993-1993: O’Higgins. 1994-1996: Universidad Catolica. 1998: Palestino. 1999-2000: LDU Quito (Ecuador). 2001-2002: San Lorenzo (Argentina). 2002-2003. River Plate (Argentina). Since 1 July 2004: Villarreal (Spain).
Honours as a coach: 1994: Copa Interamericana winner. 1995: Chilean cup winner. 1999: Ecuadorian league winner. 2001: winner of Argentinian Clausura. 2001: Copa Mercosur winner. 2003: winner of Argentinian Clausura. 2004: UEFA Intertoto Cup winner.
Miscellaneous: In 1979 he obtained a degree in civil engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, majoring in construction.

“I Have Given It All I Have Got”

After successful spells in his native Chile and in Argentina, 54-year-old Manuel Pellegrini has been head coach of Spanish club Villarreal since 2004.
FM: In 2004 you joined Villarreal and embarked on an ambitious project but one which you have always approached calmly. Almost four seasons later, there is no doubt that your time in charge of the “Yellow Submarine” has been one long success story. How would you assess your time at the club? Manuel Pellegrini: When you join a club, you come with a lot of expectations and the desire to transmit your footballing beliefs. I knew that this was a solid and coherent project and I have given it all I’ve got.

Like life itself, this project has had its highs and lows, but you have always come out of it in the best possible manner. Did you ever consider leaving Villarreal when you were going through a period of bad results?
Pellegrini: First of all, if you analyse the past four years, I don’t know if there have been any lows. In the first season we qualified for the Champions League after finishing third in the league and reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. The following season we reached the semi-finals of the Champions League, came seventh in the league and played in the Intertoto Cup, although we did not qualify for the UEFA Cup. Last season was difficult in some respects because we did not live up to the expectations we had created for ourselves and because of certain external factors. It was difficult, but we finished fifth. There is currently a lot of dissatisfaction even though we’ve spent the whole of the season in the Champions League places. What low points? I don’t think we have ever been through periods where we thought that things weren’t working out. There have been no internal problems either. It may be that externally we have fallen short of our objective, but I am very satisfied with the work we have done and with the attitude of the group.

That raises two issues. First of all, is your greatest achievement to have instilled team spirit? And secondly, do you believe that you have particularly improved the team from a psychological standpoint?
Pellegrini: My greatest achievement has been to obtain commitment from the players. Here everyone plays the same except Barcelona; we had to ensure commitment to the system because that is always very important to a coach. From a psychological standpoint, I think that the team has good moments and bad ones depending on the results. There was a crisis here last year and the squad were not happy. There are 25 different people and they all think in a different way. The most important thing is that they are all committed to reaching a particular target.

Which target?
Pellegrini: Those who are only interested in results say that winning is the only way to play well. I want my players to play well to win.

Do you not think that being solid in defence and quick on the counter-attack is also good football?
Pellegrini: To play well is to win. I’ve always said that. But you have to consider the manner in which you won. A pragmatic coach is someone who praises the team for time-wasting and drawing fouls and is not interested in the cohesion of the team. I respect that idea. But do I want to play like that? When I am asked about that footballing philosophy, I neither understand it nor do I accept it. My best example of playing well is against Barcelona and I’m not just using it because we won the last match against that great team [3-1 away]. We never asked for the stretcher, we didn’t waste time when taking free kicks or throw-ins, the team wanted to keep playing to the point of being irresponsible if you want to put it like that. Logically, if you have a good defence you usually play well. I can understand why people praise that approach. Some people come and play like that at the Madrigal and they deserve some credit because winning is the only way to play well.

Which would you prefer, to win the league or to come second playing magnificent football?
Pellegrini: Aesthetically speaking it is more important to win the league, but there is less chance of winning the league if you don’t play well.

This Villarreal side, your Villarreal, stands out because of its 4-4-2 system, but you constantly adapt this formula as you go in search of victory. Do you believe in tactical systems?
Pellegrini: They are useful, but not to win. They can be used to bring a certain mechanical quality to the play, but to win you clearly need the individual skills of the players you have inserted into the system. I personally think that tactics are intelligence applied to the game. We have played against Barcelona several times using a second striker like Robert Pires and we have won, but then that same system and team that beat Barcelona were thrashed by Zaragoza. Effectiveness and performance is also decisive. My idea is that you can put defenders, midfielders or even a forwards on the wings, the important thing is to occupy the space. You have to sacrifice a striker, but it is better with two attacking midfielders because they create more fluidity in attack. But it all varies, the name may vary, but not the system. You make tactical changes at particular moments in a match in an attempt to change the game. There’s a cliche in journalism that says that the ball suffers a lot. I don’t understand that. The ball can’t play, if Barcelona have the ball you have to find another way of beating them. The best way to do damage to an opponent is to get in behind them through runs from deep from Eguren or Pires with Guille Franco playing with his back to goal. But it is the team performance that wins matches, never the system.

When you arrived here, you made one remark that has been repeated ad nauseam: “I don’t believe in projects of more than three years”. You have now been here for four years and have extended your contract for another two …
Pellegrini: That comment comes from a statistic that says that 98 per cent of coaches do not last more than two years at a club. You have to develop more short-term projects, although there are exceptions such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger … But in this project I have targets, maybe not specific ones, because we are trying to close the gap on the big clubs in La Liga. There was no reason not to carry on. However, not all seasons are identical. You have to live for the day, I can’t predict the future, which is defined by the present.

You have suffered a lot of adversity in one season, as happened last year with the crisis with Riquelme, the cruciate ligament injuries suffered by Gonzalo, Pires and Nihat and your poor position in the table. But despite everything, you decided to carry on because the board continued to believe in you …
Pellegrini: Without the board’s support it would have been difficult to carry on. Furthermore, the president was of the same view and gave me a new contract last season. We shook hands and continue to move forward. But I wouldn’t like to go after a bad run, but leave the club in a healthy state after everything we have achieved in this time. People have got into the bad habit of seeing the team high up the table fighting it out with the big clubs.

From what you say, I gather that you never considered leaving the club.
Pellegrini: The possibility of leaving is always there. There are always offers but I have been coherent because I am happy at this club and I still have things to offer it.

Imagine that the same thing happens to you as to Juande Ramos, you receive a dizzying offer from another club halfway through the season and have to decide whether to take it …
Pellegrini: I was in that very situation this season and decided to say no. That’s not a criticism of Juande Ramos, it’s my point of view. If I don’t feel committed, I say goodbye and I go. Ramos made that decision and there’s nothing else to say. I have a commitment with this club and I intend to honour it.

One of the most important features of your project over the last few seasons has been the large number of Latin American footballers who have played for you alongside the Europeans. Aside from their quality, is their ability to adapt quickly a decisive factor in their performance?
Pellegrini: I would not make any distinction between Latin American and European footballers. We have ttied to bring a good level of performance out of all the players in the squad. Then you have the youth players. Others have not performed well but that is not so much to do with nationality as with the requirements of the technical staff and the work the player puts in.

Another distinguishing feature is Villarreal’s youth system. During your time at the club, players such as Cazorla, Hector Font, Arzo, Marcos and Bruno, virtually one a season, have come through.
Pellegrini: I think it’s very important to prioritise youth development. Training players is very important for the club and luckily for the coaching staff, players have emerged who strengthen the club’s work and commitment.

Your compatriot Matias Fernandez is a future prospect. However, the fact he is 21, has a lot of quality and is promising player but needs to be looked after or, to be more precise, polished detracts from his image quite a lot.
Pellegrini: Yes, polish is the word. He has many qualities, but in Chile people thought that he would be a great success despite his youth. He arrived here and encountered a different type of football and a heavy playing schedule. I knew that he would need time to get used to everything. He has realised that he needs to be calm.

Could the pressure on the player have been an obstacle?
Pellegrini: Possibly. People criticise his performances and he is surrounded by a great deal of expectation. It is up to the coaching staff to assess his work. He is a work in progress, he has the ability to be successful. But I don’t think that the praise affects his performance, you can tell it hasn’t gone to his head. He is very serious in that regard.

Speaking of Chile, do you intend to coach the Chilean national team one day?
Pellegrini: I would love to. If the opportunity arose, if both parties wete amenable I would like to finish my career coaching the national team, but both parties would have to be willing. Right now, my mind is on Villarreal.

There has been speculation that this may happen when your contract with Villarreal expires.
Pellegrini: It coincides with 2010 but I live in the present, not the future. We’ll see what happens.