I hope I entertained people – I know I did, to be honest

With all the nonchalance of a rock star, Dimitar Berbatov was a cult figure during his career. He tells FourFourTwo how he became a style icon, via pig bladders and spaghetti westerns

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Dimitar Berbatov seemed to be running harmlessly towards the Old Trafford corner flag, when he unleashed the skill he'd been working on in his living room.

Sprinting to prevent Anderson’s pass from going out for a goal-kick, Berbatov stopped the ball with his right foot, spun 180 degrees, then flicked it over James Collins’ outstretched leg, all in a split second. The West Ham defender didn’t know what had just happened, but Berbatov was suddenly sauntering into the penalty area unattended, before squaring the ball for Cristiano Ronaldo to tap home.

The Bulgarian had been a Manchester United player for merely a month, and already he had delivered a moment that fans would remember. He also performed his spin on near enough the same blade of grass where Fernando Redondo had backheeled his way past Henning Berg to assist Raul for a famous Real Madrid goal eight years earlier.

Berbatov's piece of trickery became the subject for a song, Berbatov Spin by Broke Boy Fly - one of several tracks that have been written about him, including one by Thessaloniki rapper Richi after the striker spent time in the city playing for PAOK towards the end of his career.

His spin assist was typical of the style and swagger that he displayed so often throughout a career which took him from Blagoevgrad - his home town at the foot of the Rila mountains - and onwards to CSKA Sofia, Bayer Leverkusen and Tottenham Hotspur, prior to his 2008 move to Manchester. There, he also scored a hat-trick against Liverpool and five goals in a single game against Blackburn. In total, he found the net 329 times during his career.

Previously, the two-time Premier League winner has spoken about how his languid style of play was based on kung fu. “You have someone who's going crazy and someone doing slow movements - the one with the correct movements destroys the other guy,” he once explained.