'It was like we were sleeping together!' - Berbatov reveals favourite strike partner

The previous Manchester United striker uncovers an amazing name as his most noteworthy strike accomplice, an unheralded name who he scarcely addressed off the pitch

Dimitar Berbatov may have arranged nearby Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez at Manchester United - and Robbie Keane at Tottenham - however none of those Premier League legends make the cut as his preferred strike accomplice.

The Bulgarian hired gunman went to the English game following an effective five-year spell at Bundesliga monsters Bayer Leverkusen, where he quite arrived at the 2002 Champions League last just to be vanquished by a Zinedine Zidane-roused Real Madrid side.

The accompanying season he was joined by his ideal strike accomplice as França was marked from Brazilian side Sao Paulo to supplant club symbol Ulf Kirsten. In his second season at the club, Franca scored 14 and got an association best 13 helps, a season which saw Berbatov net 16 class objectives by and large.

In spite of the fact that Berbatov made more progress at Manchester United with Rooney and Tevez, his ideal accomplice was a player who just had a transitory vocation in European football.

"Any semblance of Rooney and Keane, we supplemented one another, and that is regardless of whether you don't talk a great deal outside the pitch," Betfair Ambassador Berbatov told Goal. "You regard each other for what you do on the pitch.

"You see what each other can do and how you help each other show signs of improvement. Thus, you help the group. Everybody wins. At Leverkusen, I had an incredible association with a person called França. We scored such a significant number of objectives. We pulverized Bayern Munich 4-1 one season.

"We both got two objectives each. He didn't communicate in English or German so outside the pitch we didn't let out the slightest peep. Truly nothing. Truly, nothing. I perceived how he prepared and played on the pitch and the opposite way around.

"At the point when we stepped on the pitch, man, it resembled we were dozing together! I was getting a charge out of playing with that person. Mind boggling. Not childish. I was in a superior position and he would give me the ball. At the point when I gave him the ball, he scored.

"It resembled Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke. It was extraordinary how we played together. Playing with him helped me create. I value that when I play with players better or on my level. You can generally get the hang of something."

The 2001-02 season originated before França's time at the club however was the pinnacle of Leverkusen's accomplishments in Berbatov's time. The club wound up finishing a treble of other participants completes in the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and the Champions League.

In the 45th moment of the Champions League last in Glasgow's Hampden Park, Zidane composed history with a dazzling volley that remaining parts one of the opposition's untouched most prominent objectives. Berbatov had quite recently gone ahead for the harmed Thomas Brdaric six minutes sooner and reviewed the agony of watching the ball fly into the net.

"I didn't expect we would get to the last. Indeed, I didn't have the foggiest idea or acknowledge what it was," Berbatov included. "I was only a little youngster sitting on the seat. In the event that you don't understand the significance of a minute, at that point you can quit thinking imagine a scenario in which I commit an error.

"You need to play and appreciate. In that manner, I didn't think by any means. The one thing that frightened me wasn't that it was the last of the Champions League, it was confronting Raul, Zidane, Luis Figo and Roberto Carlos. You stay there as a fanboy.

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