De nada amigo
Ronaldo ne jouera pas, au mieux il sera sur le banc contre Villareal mais il jouera contre Chelsea
Inside the modest two bedroom council flat where Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov was born, his mother Margarita winces when she recalls life in grim communist-era 1980s Bulgaria.
"When Dimitar was very small he broke the cabinet by accident because he used to kick a basketball around the apartment," she said. "We couldn't afford to buy him a football.
"When he grew up we had a tough life but he never complained.
Dimitar always had enough to eat and was happy playing football."
Our Mania front page photo shows Berbatov, then three, playing football with an outsized basketball in a dusty, cratered backyard.
The new star of Old Trafford recognises how hard life was in his early days, even having to queue for bread for up to eight hours: "We would get in line at six in the morning, and if you lost your place you had to go to the back."
Berbatov showed a single-minded approach to the game from an early age. His mum said: "Dimitar has no interest in a fancy lifestyle.
His life is football, family and friends. He can travel anywhere in the world, but he tells me he prefers Bulgaria to Barbados."
The £30.75million striker admitted: "I miss it in some ways. I had my friends, and the conditions united and strengthened you. My personality has been shaped by my upbringing.
"I know what a crisis is. I appreciate life and I never take anything for granted."
Many of Bulgaria's new rich show off their wealth with a gangster-style chic of gold chains, black Cherokee jeeps and garishly coloured villas.
Berbatov shuns this bling culture. Home means Blagoevgrad, a depressed former mining town in western Bulgaria.
When he visits his mum he sleeps on the battered blue sofa in the lounge like he always has.
His mother self-consciously nods at the shiny new Honda Civic parked in the yard outside, a recent birthday present from her son.
"I am very proud of him. What makes me really happy is we always talk after every game. I text him during the match, maybe when he's scored a great goal.
"That waymy message is waiting for him when he finishes. He tells me I am the world's greatest mum."
Off the pitch Berbatov is well known as a sponsor of childrens' charities. At the Blagoevgrad children's home, director Yevgenia Yordanova says Berbatov's donations feed and clothe their 74 underprivileged kids.
"His help means these children eat properly. Without him we would struggle. He's a role model," she said.
Berbs
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2008/09/13/from-this-to-a-30m-superstar-115875-20735239/