My first year at the club, I won my first Premier League title. I was just like… oh my God. Jumping inside.



When I went home that night I jumped around for real because nobody could see me, with my medal, going around the house naked. I was so happy. But when I go in the dressing room after the game, I see Giggsy with his 110th medal or whatever, already saying:



‘Berbs, the next one is coming.’



We won the league a few minutes ago and already it’s forgotten!



I’m like… can I have five minutes, please? I’ve JUST won my first medal. You know, nothing special!



You could see that for them it was almost like something normal. Probably for me it would be the same after that many medals, but in that dressing room it was always about the next goal, the next cup, the next title, the next Champions League. This is what winners do. It was unbelievable.



For a Bulgarian guy like me, coming from a small country, I was so proud. I grew up during communism. I was not lucky enough to be born into a good infrastructure, good pitches, money for the infrastructure so I could stay in my country for the whole of my career. For me, coming to England is more difficult, but then achieving success is more sweet, you know? The difficult parts, overcoming them, made everything more sweet for me.

Again, being around these guys, it was unbelievable. Even if you don’t speak much, you just have to watch. If you wanna ask, you go ask them, they will give you advice. Or when they need to rough you up, they'll do that too because you need it from time to time. These are not kid games and this is not something to take personally; it’s always about the team because everybody wants to be a winner.



Look at Vida.



I was close to Vida because I was born close to the border with Macedonia, so for me, these countries – Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia - we are all the same. I understand and I can speak the languages no problem. We are all brothers there.



It was so natural to have that good bond with him because I knew where he was coming from, I know at some point in his life what he was going through when that war in Serbia was raging, you know? So it’s good to have someone like this when you go to a different club, because he knows you on some level, you know him, you speak the same language as him, and he was always helpful. He was a good joker; his sense of humour was so funny. If you don’t know him then you’re gonna take it personally, but Vida was so funny. I still keep in touch with him, great guy.



Training against him every day, it wasn’t hard… it was a nightmare! You know you have teams and players you don’t wanna face? You see the opposition team and think to yourself:



Oh, not today. I’m not in the mood for this today.



Vida was one of those guys.



When I was with Spurs, he was always a nightmare. Then in training when I went to United, it was like war. It doesn’t matter who was against him – Ronny, Rooney, me – doesn’t matter. Everybody got kicked. Then when we played the games I was so relieved that he was in my team! He was always coming in after the game, bleeding, bump on the head, but you could see it was always for the team. He put his head there for the team.



So if success was extra sweet for me, I know it was the same for Vida. He’d been through the same as me and worse, growing up through a war. When you visit Serbia now, you still see the bullet holes in the big tower blocks. Vida was going through worse than I was, so for him it was even better to succeed.



You had players like me and Vida, the guys who had been at the club since they were kids and all other kinds of different personalities, but Sir Alex was able to speak with us all and motivate us all.



Sometimes in training he comes up, we’re warming up and stretching, and you see him going to players individually. Some days speaking with some players for two, three minutes, other days with other players, making them feel special in some way. Always you see how the players were reacting to the way he was speaking to them. This showed the quality of his psychology; that he could speak to every single person. You need to be different with everybody, with every football guy, because we have big egos, we’re all different, all spoilt in some way, so you have to know how to speak with everybody: gently with some, jokingly with others, more angry with some, and he has that approach where he can speak with everybody.



This is Sir Alex Ferguson. One million titles, one million more achievements in life, so you listen. You listen to what he says. This was so special, and football players like to be made to feel special. Even if it’s for five minutes, 10 minutes, make them feel part of the team, to see that you pay attention to them, even if they don’t play. He was very good, and the speeches he gave before games, the motivating speeches… sometimes it was like a movie. He’s going on about his life, saying how he started in the docks, his father and him, talking about all the people around the world who are not as lucky as us, and by the end of it you’re like…



Man, I’m going to f****** EAT someone out there!



So you’d go out there and give everything. It was the least I could do.

After all, he did pick me up from the airport!