Media reports about a threat to kidnap the newborn child of Manchester United football star Dimitar Berbatov are utterly untrue, Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tvsetan Tvstanov told Bulgarian National Television on December 4 2009.

"I met Berbatov yesterday and we talked about it," Tsvetanov said.

"He looked very concerned regarding what goes around in the public domain about his child facing kidnapping threats. I told him that nothing of what has been said was true," Tsvetanov said.

"Stories like this only give bad ideas to bad people how they can make easy money," according to Tsvetanov.

On December 1 2009, UK tabloids said that Bulgarian mafia had threatened to kidnap Berbatov's wife Elena and their newborn baby daughter Dea unless they paid 500 000 pounds sterling.

Supposedly, according to the Daily Mirror, the United forward was so concerned about his family’s safety that "he fled his country immediately with his family after striking a deal with the gang".

"Old Trafford boss Sir Alex Ferguson is believed to have sanctioned a private charter jet to fly them back to England," according to the Daily Mirror.

All of this was based on Bulgarian sources.

Berbatov's agent, Emil Danchev, immediately rejected the media reports as untrue.

Danchev said that the original report, which he described as "utter nonsense with no bearing on reality", came from Bulgarian tabloid Show.

Four days after the gossip rag published its story, it made headline news in England.