Dimitar Berbatov, The Man With The Golden Touch, Says Goodbye To The Beautiful Game

Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov has officially announced his retirement at 38 years old with a video and written statement, which he posted on Instagram.

Berbatov was very candid in the statement, saying that he did try to find a team to play for last year, but it didn’t happen. He finished his soccer career at Indian league side Kerala Blasters last year and has been a pundit ever since.

Despite the fact he hasn’t played in over a year, Berbatov wanted to create an official farewell message to the public so they knew his career was over and that he wouldn’t be returning to the game. A criminally underrated striker, Berbatov was a journeyman, playing for eight clubs over the course of his professional career, including clubs like Manchester United, Fullham, Tottenham Hotspur and Monaco. He was an elite finisher and had a world class first touch, stunning crowds with moments of elegant simplicity like this: 

Scoring an impressive 297 goals over 595 games in his career, Berbatov will be remembered as an entertainer, a player who truly embodied the the beautiful game with the flair and artistry he brought to the pitch every match. I was going to include a compilation of goals he scored over his career, but in classic Berbatov fashion, he added a highlight reel to his goodbye video so “nobody forgets the great goals I (he) scored.”

View this post on Instagram

On this special day today, / if you don't know why, check the story / i decide to share this with you, which i was preparing to post a while ago, but didn't... I don't know why... I know some of you already thought that i retired, and now maybe you are like WTF Berbs we know that you don't play, but i did try to find something last year.. Didn't happened So, someone told me i need to say something, and seeing that people where asking me, especially back home, i need to give a farewell message! So, here it is! My last game was more then one year ago, so i think its the right time now to stop and its long overdue! Although when i think about it, its never The End, because i will stay in the game in one way or another, the time has come to say that after almost 20 years playing football i am stoping with my proffesional ACTIVE football career! I will miss it! I will fucking miss it! Everything! The games, trainings, the goals, preparations, the presure, my teammates... the roar of the fans when i scored another banger I was blessed and work hard to have the oportunity to play with one of the best ever and against some of the best ever! And coming from small country this makes it even more special for me! I had my highs and of course some lows in my career, won my fair share of trophies, score some goals along the way as well! I played the way i wanna play, and i scored the goals i wanted to score! Thank you to all the people who helped me develope, and became the player i always wanted to be! Thank you to all my former teams my teammates and my coaches and staff! It was a pleasure! I know at times i was not easy to work with, but i always gave my everything for the teams i played for! I hope you all have enjoyed my game, and everything i gave to entertain you on the pitch! Damn it, i will miss all of this, peopleee, because i love football so much... But i am sure you will miss me as well Thank you! DB9

A post shared by Dimitar Berbatov (@berbo9) on Sep 19, 2019 at 7:18am PDT

Lucky for us, Berbatov plans to continue on as a soccer pundit, so he will still be entertaining us off the pitch for years to come.

Cheers Berbo! You’ll always be remembered for making soccer that much more fun to watch every time you were on the field.