Stiliyan Petrov today announced he will retire from football at the age of 33 as he continues his battle with acute leukaemia . Petrov has had an outstanding career as a midfielder for both Aston Villa and Celtic as well being Bulgaria's most capped player with 106 caps.
However, Petrov's career at Celtic wasn't a smooth upward curve by any means. He moved to Celetic from CSKA Sofia at the age of 19 and initially struggled to adapt to life in Glasgow. Petrov was playing out of position at right back for manager John Barnes and described how he used to lie on the floor, sobbing and thumping the floorboards in homesickness and loneliness. At the time, Petrov feared he was having a breakdown.
Petrov was determined to learn English to communicate with his teammates and one of his Scottish friends suggested a novel way to help him with the nuances of the language and dialect. "He had a burger van and encouraged me to work behind the bar because it meant I had to communicate with people ordering food...Some of the customers used to stare, thinking, 'That looks like Stiliyan Petrov, but it can't be'."
Aided by his language course in the burger van, Petrov thrived at Celtic and secured a 6.5 million pound move to Aston Villa in 2006. Soon after moving to Villa, Petrov fell out with Bularian national team manager Hristo Stoichkov. Petrov, like many Bulgarians, had idolised Stoichkov growing up and had played with him for Bulgaria.
Nevertheless, Petrov retired from international football in October 2006 at the age of 27 and stated that he would not return to the national side as long as Stoichkov remained the manager. Petrov explained at the time that "I'm not doing this to try to get Stoichkov out of a job. I just wanted to show him that a lot of people have interfered, and that he should try to stand on his own feet and try to make decisions for himself and the team." Petrov ended his self imposed exile in March 2007 after mending fences with Stoichkov.
Petrov retired today as Aston Villa club captain after 218 appearances for the club with twelve goals. He won the clubs' Supporters' Player of The Year award in 2009.
And now for what you're all really here for, a compilation of Petrov's best goals and moments to the tune of the finest European trance music.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/32129856[/vimeo]
