An artist says goodbye

“News coming in from all corners about Dimitar Berbatov supposedly leaving for Florence to join Fiorentina but ditching them to go to Juventus. That was yesterday’s news. Today the news says that he is in London on his way to join Fulham and is undergoing a medical.”

The only thing certain from the above given information and chain of events was the clear and inevitable truth. Dimitar Berbatov has finally said good bye to the United faithful, the club and to the Theatre of Dreams. And boy did he take that name seriously- Theatre.

Various write-ups have been done and blogs imploring the skill and beauty of his game before and this note is going to have a lot of stuff that you already know. Nevertheless, it breaks my heart to see someone like him leave us and not even a word of thanks was said. Everyone is so busy with talking about the exciting new signings like Kagawa, Buttner and a certain Mr.Arsenal. But I cannot accept that. I have to say my goodbye to the man who made me oooh and aaah during his stay at United.

For me, the journey of the 4 seasons he spent started on a damp August night in 2008. We were playing Portsmouth and I rememeber sitting at my friend Mikhail’s place watching us miss chance after chance and hold onto a tame draw from a scratchy goal no one could be proud of. All I remember were the commentator’s words-

“I think after that performance Ferguson and his staff will be packing into cars rushing for the capital tomorrow.”

What happened next was a long drawn battle and a huge price tag of 30.75 million pounds. Naturally, the curiosity reached a fever pitch. I mean all I had seen till then were glimpses of him at Spurs. And what a debut he got too with Liverpool. We lost that day 2-1 and the usual amount of name calling began. He is too lazy, too slow for United, looks like he was having a walk in the park. No one, not even me really, thought he was doing well. I still remember fans abusing Fergie for this deal. But just like his style, slowly his game started showing its true colors with that game against West Ham. It was sheer class (these words went on to be used every time he played later) from Berba. The ball is on the line, almost out, and he dummies the defence, moves forward and lazily puts it in the path of Ronaldo, who taps in the easiest of chances. Easy because Berba had made it so.

He never really managed to win over many fans but I started to love the way he played and admired the fact that he kept his individuality alive for the time he was here. He never wavered, only left us all in awe. The next season started to define him. Ronaldo had been sold to Madrid for an insane amount, Tevez had defected and all we got was an injury prone Micheal Owen. The responsiblity of the attack fell on Berbatov and Rooney. That was a very hard season. We won the Carling Cup, but otherwise went trophyless and lost the league on the last day.

Fergie went and got in more strikers in the next season with Chicharito coming through. But this was the season tailor made for Berbatov. He used to score overhead kicks all the time, almost out of habit. But this season, he decided to outdo himself and get the golden boot.

The Blackburn game where he scored 5 goals, the Blackpool game where we came from 2-0 down at a pivotal time in the league, and Berbatov scored 2 goals in two minutes, including the winner. The time when he showed that he didn’t need pace to outrun the defence against Everton, Just the use of his immense footballing brain, by keeping the ball away from Distin and slamming it home was sufficient enough. But what I see as the highlight of his career here with the Red devils is what he did in the Liverpool-United match. They are two of the most successful teams in England and a rivalry well documented for a hundred years. This man strolls right through the game and scores a hattrick, the first scored in over 64 years between these two rivals. And that’s not even the best part. Liverpool had fought back to 2-2 and he popped up to score the winner. The way he used his knee to set up yet another over head kick in that game was exquisite to say the least.

He was a class apart, an artist, wizard, genius, the best first touch in the game in a long long time. This man was all this and more. I guess it will be a while before I see someone like him again. I will miss him a lot. But I am happy that he will get to play more first team football wherever he goes. The Theatre bids a true artist goodbye….

This line always reminded me of Berbatov-

“Doing nothing and being still are two very different things.” – The Karate Kid