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