page_title: Dimitar Berbatov
section_title: Fulham
hierarchical_section_title: Dimitar Berbatov / Club career / Fulham
caption_attribution_description: Craven Cottage, September 2012
context_page_description: Dimitar Ivanov Berbatov is a Bulgarian former professional footballer. A striker, he captained the Bulgaria national team from 2006 to 2010, and is the country's all-time leading goalscorer. He is regarded as one of the greatest Bulgarian players of all time.
  Born in Blagoevgrad, Berbatov started out with his home-town club Pirin before joining CSKA Sofia as a 17-year-old in 1998. He was signed by Bayer Leverkusen of Germany in January 2001 and played in his first Champions League final 18 months later, coming on as a substitute in the 2002 UEFA Champions League Final, which Leverkusen lost 2–1 to Real Madrid.
  After five-and-a-half years with Leverkusen, he joined English club Tottenham Hotspur in July 2006, where he spent two years before moving to Manchester United. He played in his second Champions League final in 2009, during his side's 2–0 defeat against Barcelona. After four seasons with United, during which time he won two Premier League titles in 2008–09 and 2010–11, as well as the Premier League Golden Boot in 2010–11, he joined Fulham in August 2012.
context_section_description: On 31 August 2012, it was announced Berbatov had signed a two-year contract with Fulham for an undisclosed fee. He made his league debut the following day, in a 3–0 loss against West Ham United, coming off the bench for Fulham at half-time. On 15 September, he made his home debut and scored twice in a 3–0 win against West Bromwich Albion. On 27 October he scored Fulham's third goal in a 3–3 away draw with Reading. On 10 November Berbatov played 90 minutes against Arsenal, in a game in which he made an assist and scored twice for yet another 3–3 draw.
  After scoring against Southampton on 26 December 2012, Berbatov took off his shirt to reveal the words "keep calm and pass me the ball" written on his vest, a celebration for which he was yellow-carded and which manager Martin Jol described as "not the brightest thing to do". On 1 January 2013, Berbatov scored the first Premier League goal of the new year when he opened the scoring away at West Bromwich Albion in an important 2–1 away win for Fulham.
  On 30 January 2013, his 32nd birthday, he scored the first in a 3–1 home win against West Ham, raising his tally in the Premier League to eight since joining the Cottagers. He then scored the only goal in the game against Stoke City on 23 February, followed by another one in the 2–2 draw with Sunderland on 2 March. In Fulham's next Premier League game Berbatov scored the only goal against his old side in a surprise 0–1 away win to Tottenham. On 1 April 2013, Berbatov scored two goals against QPR in a 3–2 win at Craven Cottage, one of them from the penalty spot. This took his season tally in the league to 13 goals, and it also made him the first Fulham player to score in four consecutive league games since Steed Malbranque in 2003. Berbatov's next goal came against Liverpool in the penultimate game of the season. Berbatov rounded off the season with a goal away at Swansea City on the final day in a 3–0 away win. This took his tally to 15 goals in his debut season for Fulham.
caption: Berbatov playing for Fulham
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D5100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Cyber-shot Viewer", "Image DateTime": "2012:09:16 14:52:45", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "286", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "37506", "Image SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "37644", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6177", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:09:15 16:22:35", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:09:15 16:22:35", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "47/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "200", "EXIF SubSecTime": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4426", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2938", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "37456", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "300", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "0"}