There are supporters and then there was the Bulgarian Marin Levidzhov, who died this week aged 62
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sk any Manchester United fan of a certain age what 26 May 1999 means to them, and they will tell you the date has marked them for life. It was the night injury-time goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær sealed United’s 2-1 comeback in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich at the Camp Nou. It was also the night the life of one United fan in Bulgaria, who has died this week at the age of 62, changed for ever.
That supporter was born Marin Zdravkov Levidzhov in Svishtov, a town on the Danube with a population of 22,000. Growing up in communist Bulgaria adoring football, he dreamed of changing his name to … Manchester United. To claim the name of a football club from the capitalist west, however, was mission impossible. Had Marin tried to do so before the fall of the regime, he would almost certainly have ended up in jail.
Ten years after the end of communism in Bulgaria – on that night in May 1999 – Marin’s idiosyncratic dream edged closer to reality. Watching the final from his modest home in Svishtov and with United trailing, Marin made a promise to himself: if United somehow turned the game around, he would do anything to change his name to that of the club he loved. Then the impossible happened.
