O búlgaro Dimitar Berbatov, que se destacou ao serviço de Bayer Leverkusen, Tottenham e Manchester United, anunciou esta quinta-feira o final da carreira de futebolista, aos 38 anos, depois de mais de 18 meses sem jogar.

Numa longa mensagem divulgada na rede social Instagram, o agora ex-avançado refere que “chegou o momento de parar” e colocar um ponto final numa carreira que durou 20 anos.

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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

“Vou sentir falta. De tudo. Dos jogos, dos treinos, dos golos, da preparação, da pressão, dos meus colegas e do ruído dos adeptos quando eu marcava um golo”, escreveu Berbatov, que começou a carreira em 1998, ao serviço do CSKA de Sófia, antes de representar Bayer Leverkusen (2001 a 2006), Tottenham (2006 a 2008) e Manchester United (2008 a 2013).

Seguir-se-iam passagens por Fulham, Mónaco, PAOK e pelos indianos do Kerala Blasters, clube no qual realizou o último jogo em fevereiro de 2018.

Ao todo, Berbatov disputou 735 jogos e marcou 322 golos, tendo conquistado três ligas inglesas, três taças da Liga inglesa, duas supertaças de Inglaterra, uma Taça da Bulgária e um Mundial de clubes.

Pela seleção búlgara, registou 78 partidas e 48 golos, e participou no Euro2004, que se disputou em Portugal.