So what are Manchester City getting in their £27 million signing, Edin Dzeko?
Manchester City have finally concluded the long awaited transfer of Bosnian striker, Edin Dzeko for a reported £27m. City have been really determined to get their man and they once again showed that they can get a player, if they really want to.
The former Wolfsburg striker has been one of Europe’s hottest properties and has been linked with nearly all top clubs. City will make him one of the highest paid players with a reported annual salary of around €10m. So what is Manchester City getting for all their money?
A Bosnian Muslim, Dzeko was born and grew up in Sarajevo. “I was six when the war started,” he said. “It was terrible. My house was destroyed so we went to live with my grandparents. The whole family was there, maybe 15 people all staying in an apartment of about 35 square metres. It was very hard. We were stressed every day in case somebody we knew died. A lot of footballers start to play kicking a ball around in the street. For me that was impossible, but when the war finished I was much stronger, mentally.”
The tall and strong Dzeko found it hard to break into the Bosnian football. Bosnian football is played at high tempo with quick one touch passing; similar to Arsenal style of football. Therefore players like Dzeko and Nikola Zigic were never taken too seriously.
He was considered as an ‘English’ footballer which was less of a compliment and more of mockery. His first club was Zeljeznicar Sarajevo and when they were offered €50,000 by Czech club Teplice, the club regarded that offer as nothing less than a lottery.
His move to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Czech-Republic-c2882 gave him new impetus. In a country where people were more receptive to tall footballers such as their very own, 6ft 8in Jan Koller, Dzeko found life a lot easier. He developed as a footballer and learnt new traits. Being tall and big, he was the fulcrum of his teams attacking moves and with time he became lethal in the air and developed the skill of holding up the ball.
His performances in the Czech league did not go unnoticed and Wolfsburg paid €4.7m for his services in 2007. His approach to the game changed with his move to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Germany-c2904. Wolfsburg played football on the ground and they won the German Bundesliga playing fluid, attractive, counter-attacking football.
Since then he has only excelled and taken huge strides in the right direction. In his 138 games for Wolfsburg, Dzeko has found the back of the net 85 times. Many regarded him to be slow and doubted his mobility on the pitch – including Sir Alex Ferguson, who thought he was too slow.
However, his goals and performances alerted nearly all top European clubs. But was it just his goal scoring ability that turned their attention towards the Bosnian?
It’s not just his goals but it’s his overall contribution on the pitch that made him such key player for the German side. He has 26 assists to his name from the past 2 seasons. This comes out be a total of 91 goals in which the striker has been directly involved – he has scored 65 goals during the last two seasons.
He is a team player and isn’t known for his tap in's or goals which are laid on the plate for him. He gets the best out of the players around him; best example being his Brazilian teammate Grafiti, who plays alongside him at Wolfsburg.
He is at his very best when he has a strike partner. At City he would relish the chance of playing alongside Carlos Tevez and will be ably supported by others such as the Spanish maestro David Silva.
At City, who are growing in confidence, Dzeko could prove to be that missing link which can take them to, not just a top 4 finish but also to a league title.
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