Fulham’s Berbatov declines to return to Bulgarian national team
Dimitar Berbatov, newly signed at Fulham, said on September 3 2012 that he would not be returning to the Bulgarian national football team.
Berbatov told a news conference at Vassil Levski national stadium in Sofia, the capital of his native Bulgaria, that national team manager Lyuboslav Penev had tried to woo him back, “he did everything to make me feel good and to prove that he wants me to come back,” Berbatov said.
But, said that footballer who signed a two-year, four million pound sterling contract to leave Manchester United for Fulham, his position about not returning to the national team had not changed.
“The boys will manage without me. I have not been playing for Bulgaria, I have lost my rhythm,” Berbatov said.
Someone else was needed to take the leading role in the national team, and for new faces to be found, he told the news conference.
Berbatov quitBulgaria’s national football team in May 2010. Since then, there has been periodic speculation in the media that he would return.
Penev had attempted to recruit Berbatov for the World Cup qualifiers against Italyon September 7 and Armenia on September 11.
(Main photo: Dimitar Yotov)
