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Former Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov has named Robbie Keane as his favorite strike partner ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. The former Bulgaria international said that he enjoyed playing alongside the Irishman at Tottenham Hotspur and hailed their partnership.
Berbatov made his mark in the Premier League playing for United, Spurs, and Fulham. The 44-year-old joined the Lilywhites in the summer of 2006 from Bayer Leverkusen before signing for the Red Devils two seasons later.
During his time at both clubs, Berbatov shared the dressing room with some of football's most prolific forwards, including Keane, Ronaldo, Rooney, and Carlos Tevez. However, he disclosed that it was the former Republic of Ireland striker that he relished playing with the most.
When asked to name his best striker partner during a recent interview with TNT Sports Football on TikTok (via TBR Football), Berbatov gave the accolade to Robbie Keane. He lauded their chemistry and productivity in the final third, labelling it a 'great partnership'.
Berbatov and Keane shared the pitch 80 times together for Tottenham, recording 17 joint-goal contributions. Their prolific partnership notably earned them a joint Premier League Player of the Month award in April 2007. They also guided Spurs to the League Cup glory in 2008, defeating Chelsea in the final.
Berbatov moved to Old Trafford in 2008, where he recorded more success by winning another League Cup and two Premier League titles. He played with Cristiano Ronaldo for one season, with the pair combining for five goals in 39 matches. Meanwhile, Berbatov and Rooney shared the pitch 99 times for Manchester United, registering 12 joint-goal participations.
In 149 appearances for the Red Devils, Berbatov contributed 56 goals and 27 assists. Meanwhile, he scored 46 goals and provided 29 assists in 102 matches for Spurs.
When Dimitar Berbatov picked Lionel Messi over Cristiano Ronaldo in the GOAT debate
Dimitar Berbatov once weighed in on the Greatest of All Time debate between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Despite sharing the dressing room with the Portuguese, Berbatov named the Argentine as the best to play the game.
In a 2018 interview with ESPN FC, Berbatov said:
Messi is the f***ing greatest. Ronaldo is brilliant, Messi, more my kind of player. He sees the game so clearly. He can score, create, he's the complete player, the best ever probably."
The former Manchester United star added:
"If you ask someone older than me they will say Pele, Maradona or Puskas or Di Stefano. But for my generation it's Messi or Ronaldo. They're pretty much even, but something with Messi makes me shout 'Messi! Messi!' when I watch Barcelona on television."
Nevertheless, he lauded Cristiano Ronaldo's work ethic, saying:
"Young players try and imitate the best players like Ronaldo. They try to imitate the hair, the clothes, the cars, the tricks. I try to tell them how hard Cristiano Ronaldo trained in training and after training. He only wanted to be the best. Everything else came after."
Berbatov never played alongside Messi, but faced him once during the 2008-09 UEFA Champions League final, which Manchester United lost 2-0 to Barcelona.
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Okenna Okere
Okenna is an football journalist at Sportskeeda. He has previously worked as a radio presenter at Green FM Umuahia for 4 years, and as a writer at Opera News Hub Nigeria for around 2 years. As a successful modus operandi, he strictly sticks to publishing guidelines, double checks facts while writing, pays very close attention to details and prides himself on picking complex topics to write on.
A Chelsea fan, Okenna had his first tryst with Blues in 2006, after fellow countryman John Mikel Obi joined the west London club. He was immediately drawn to the brilliance of players like Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, John Terry and Didier Drogba.
Okenna is a huge fan of Lionel Messi for his exceptional talent. He also admires Jose Mourinho for his achievements with various clubs which proves he's a tactical and disciplined manger as well as a serial winner.
Some of Okenna’s prospective career landmarks include working as an international journalist and covering a FIFA World Cup game live from the stadium. When not writing, he loves watching, movies and reading books.
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Edited by Aditya Singh