Mafia tells Dimitar Berbatov: Give us £500,000 or we’ll kidnap your wife and baby daughter

Escape: Dimitar Berbatov and wife Elena fled Bulgaria after the threat and are now back in Britain
12 April 2012

Premier league footballer Dimitar Berbatov was at the centre of a Mafia kidnap plot when mobsters threatened to seize his wife and baby unless he paid £500,000, it was reported.

The former Spurs player and Bulgarian international ended up striking a deal with the gangsters and was so terrified he then fled Sofia where he had been staying with his family.

The £30 million Manchester United star is said to have flown to the UK on a private charter jet sanctioned by his manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, with his wife Elena and newborn daughter Dea. The club also increased security at his home in England.

A family friend told the Daily Mirror: "Dimi is still very worried for his family and has promised his neighbours money if they notice any suspicious people around his house."

Berbatov, 28, had been back home in Sofia with his wife and child when his mother Margarita received the kidnap threat 10 days ago.

It is believed he refused to tell the police after underworld sources told him officials from Bulgaria's Internal Affairs ministry were in on the plot.

A spokesman for Manchester United refused to comment saying it was "a security matter".

It is the second time Berbatov, who was sold by Spurs last year for £30.75 million, has been in a kidnap plot. He was kidnapped as an 18-year-old by the boss of a rival football team, when he was at CSKA Sofia. According to a book, he was abducted after training by three gangsters working with mob chief Georgi Iliev.

The gangster was trying to force him to sign for his club Levski Kyustendil. But as he was being taken to meet Iliev, he managed to make a call to his father Ivan, who negotiated a deal.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in