Kezman: a shooting star

The striker Mateja Kezman

Lazio – Partizan Belgrade were playing in 1998 when after the game the Lazio player Roberto Mancini (now manager of Manchester City) said to the striker Mateja Kezman, from Serbian team. “How old are you? Only 19? Well, you will be a great goalscorer”.

But the years pass and the promises do not always show their full potential and Kezman, last week 31 years old, was fired from Paris Saint-Germain. Earlier, the Serbian collected failures in Zenit Saint Petersburg, Fenerbahce, Atletico Madrid and Chelsea.

He never proved to be that relentless goalscorer who astonished at PSV Eindhoven, in Netherlands, between 2000 and 2004. Kezman scored 105 goals in 122 impressive games, averaging a good goal/game ratio. His numbers stood up to those of strikers who left the club to triumph in Europe’s strongest leagues, players like Romario, Ronaldo and Van Nistelrooy.Kezman did have tremendous success at PSV playing alongside Arjen Robben, current Bayern Munich player, a duo that was dubbed by the Dutch press “Batman and Robben”.

Today he has already signed a contract with the modest Demirspor Adana, from Turkey’s second division.

“Most of them are problematic” Mourinho

Mourinho and Kezman at Chelsea days

About seven months ago the coach Jose Mourinho said that young players has big difficulties to deal with success. “Most of them are problematic, if you find one who wants to drive a simple car instead of a Porsche, or one who don’t have brothers and relatives that hinder rather than help, you might consider as a miracle” said.