The Aston Villa legend says his experience with leukaemia ‘will always be on my mind’ but is happy, healthy and working towards becoming a manager
It was 11 years ago but Stiliyan Petrov makes it sound like yesterday. He knows exactly how he positioned his body to get the technique right, remembers that lovely feeling after the inside of his left foot clipped the ball on the half-volley, and can still see Roy Carroll, Derby’s goalkeeper, frantically trying to chase a shot that sailed over his head and into the top corner. Standing closer to the halfway line than the penalty area, Petrov must have been at least 45 yards out. “I don’t know the exact distance,” he says. “Just go as long as you can when you write about it.”
Petrov breaks into laughter as he makes that last comment, adding that it was “as close as I could get to shoot” back in the days when he had been converted into a holding midfielder at Aston Villa. His goal – the third of six in a thumping victory at Pride Park – was always going to crop up in conversation during a hugely enjoyable couple of hours in his company, especially as it is Derby who stand in Villa’s way in Monday’s Championship play‑off final.
Written by Stuart James
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/26/stiliyan-petrov-aston-villa-derby under the title “
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