Kochi: While speculations were doing the rounds for the last two weeks, Kerala Blasters finally made one of the biggest signing in the entire ISL history. The Kochi based club have signed former Manchester United striker and Bulgarian legend Dimitar Berbatov, the player’s agent confirmed.
Following the trend they have set up, Kerala put out a tweet to confirm the deal. “Golden touch, turns like a dream & a deadly finish. The Bulgarian Hitman is set to take ISL by storm. #DimitarIsYellow #KBFC #NammudeSwantham,” wrote the Blasters in it’s twitter handle.
According to reports, the striker’s agent, Emil Danchev, confirmed the signing saying: “I can today say Dimitar Berbatov is a player of Kerala Blasters, a club that has finished in second place in two ISL seasons. Apparently, their bosses want to change things.”
Born in Blagoevgrad, Berbatov started his football career with local club Pirin before moving to CSKA Sofia in 1998 at the age of 17. He was apparently signed by German club Bayer Leverkusen in 2001, scoring 91 goals for them in 201 appearances.
He was also a part of the Bayer team that lost the 2002 UEFA Champions League final to Real Madrid, after Zidane scored a wonderful volley (one of the greatest goal in Champions League history) for the Los Blancos, in the only goal of the match.
One of the few players who have had a illustrious club career, Dimitar was brought to England in 2006 by Tottenham Hostpur.
However, he joined Manchester United in 2008 in a controversial move, where he won two English Premier League titles with the Red Devils, other than also playing the Champions League final in 2009, in the 2-0 defeat to FC Barcelona.
The Golden Boot winner of the 2010-11 season in the EPL, signed one year contract with the club, joining his former team-mate Wes Brown and also former United assistant coach Rene Meulensteen in the Blasters setup. After spending four seasons with the Manchester club, he joined Fulham. He has also played for Monaco and Greek club PAOK club later in his career.
While the signing of the seven times Bulgarian footballer of the year will add much more experience and power in the attacking front of the club, It will be interesting to see how he links up with C.K. Vineeth and Iain Hume, who are the other two strikers for the men in yellow this season.
Another ISL club FC Pune city also announced the signing of Spanish defender Rafael Lopez Gomez for the season. The defender has played in the top division tier of both Spain and Germany.
Club CEO Gaurav Modwel confirmed the signing saying, “Rafa has played a decade of top-flight football in Spain against some of the best players in the world. As a captain of Real Valladolid, his leadership and experience as a defender will add strength to our line-up. I am excited to see Rafa in Orange & Purple.”
Meanwhile, Chennaiyin FC also completed the signing of another Spanish, former Getafe player Jaime Gavilan Martinez . The winger who has earlier played for ATK in the 2016-17 ISL season, is the fourth signing of the club and will join the likes of Rapahel Augusto, Rene Mihelic and Inigo Calderon for the upcoming 2018-18 ISL season, which is set to start in November.
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Truly useful, look ahead to returning.|