Bulgaria and Tottenham Hotspurs striker Dimitar Berbatov “has left ajar the door” for an exit from the club during the summer transfer window, UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph said on April 11.
In an interview with Sport magazine, excerpts from which were published in the Telegraph, the Bulgarian said he saw himself in Tottenham’s future, but at the same time refused to firmly commit himself to staying with the club.
“That is not a fair question,” he said. “You can't ask me that. I am here, and I try to do my best and score goals for the team. I think I'm doing that, with the help of my team-mates and everybody else at the club.”
Despite two consecutive fifth-place finishes in the Premier League, Spurs have failed to break into the top four, which would allow the club to play in the Champions League next season and are now in 11th place in the table, 37 points off the top.
Berbatov, of course, has already played in one Champions League final in his first full season at Bayer Leverkusen, losing to Real Madrid in 2002.
His ambition now is to win the Premier League title at some point in his career. "You have to have big ambition. I would lie if I say we don't think about the title at the start of the season," he said.
"When I came, I knew that Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea were the big four and every year they fight for the title; but I was thinking why not go there and mess it all up. That hasn't happened, but we still have good team - I'm sure we can surprise a lot of people next season."
It's not quite clear whether UEFA Cup football, for which Tottenham qualified by winning the Carling Cup, will be enough to keep the Bulgarian at White Hart Lane.
Clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Milan are reportedly interested in the striker. Spurs slapped a 50 million euro transfer price tag on the Bulgarian, and is reportedly not inclined to sell him to another English team.
Tottenham manager Juande Ramos' comment was: "We are delighted if clubs are coming in with big offers for him and talking about big amounts of money, because it means he is a great player,” Telegraph quoted him as saying.
