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Mateja Kežman

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Mateja Kežman
Personal information
Full name Mateja Kežman
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[1]
Position(s) Striker
Team information
Current team
 PSG
Number 14

Mateja Kežman (Serbian Cyrillic: Матеја Кежман) (born April 12, 1979 in Zemun) is a Serbian football striker who plays for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain, on loan from Turkish Süper Lig side Fenerbahçe.

Club career

Kežman made his name at FK Partizan in his homeland before moving to Dutch side PSV Eindhoven for €10.5 million in 2000. He was the top scorer in the Dutch Eredivisie, scoring 24 goals in 33 games. He also picked up the nickname 'Batman'; the famous theme song was played at the Philips Stadion every time he scored. Kezman and Arjen Robben gained the epithet 'Batman and Robben', a play on 'Batman and Robin'.

Kežman proceeded to score 81 goals over the following three seasons with PSV, achieving the record of being the first Dutch league player to score more league goals than games played in consecutive seasons, before finally moving for £5.3 million to English side Chelsea in the summer of 2004. He scored the winning goal in the Carling Cup final against Liverpool when Chelsea had won 3-2 after extra time.

He failed to make an impact with the London club and only started 14 games. He left for Atlético de Madrid after just one season with Chelsea who made a minor profit on this transfer.

After a short spell in Madrid, he was transferred to Fenerbahçe SK for $9.75m in August 2006 on a four year contract. He won the Turkish Super League with Fenerbahçe in their centennial year.

On 19th August, 2008 Kezman agreed to join Paris Saint-Germain on loan with a purchase option of €4 million + €1 million that the player himself would have to pay to Fenerbahçe upon leaving.

International career

Kezman marked his international debut for FR Yugoslavia with a goal against China in a March 2000 friendly as part of the preparations for Euro 2000. Head coach Vujadin Boškov included him in the final 23-man roster that he took to Belgium and Holland. Despite being the fourth attacking option behind Savo Milošević, Darko Kovačević and Predrag Mijatović, 21-year-old Kežman got his chance as substitute late in the group match versus Norway. However, after being on the pitch for about 90 seconds, he was sent off following a rash tackle on Erik Mykland.

Kežman led Serbia and Montenegro's scoring during the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifications with 5 goals, including the only goal in the final game against Bosnia and Herzegovina which in turn allowed Serbia and Montenegro to qualify directly, having come first in their group. During the competition, he was sent off in a group match against Argentina by referee Roberto Rosetti.

Despite being such a prolific striker for PSV he never reached the same heights for Serbia. He has managed 17 goals in 49 caps for Serbia and Montenegro.

Since his sending off against Argentina in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, he has not been called up to any of Serbia's friendlies nor did he participate in any of the qualification games for the Euro 2008. His views on that were very vocal during 2007–08, he claimed that they were very prejudice and not fair because he was at a Turkish club.[citation needed] Since then he retired from international football in 2008.

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1998-99||rowspan="2"|Partizan||rowspan="2"|First League||22||6||6||2||2||0||30||8 |- |1999-00||32||27||2||2||7||6||41||35 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2000-01||rowspan="4"|PSV Eindhoven||rowspan="4"|Eredivisie||33||24||4||3||11||4||48||31 |- |2001-02||27||15||2||1||11||3||40||19 |- |2002-03||33||35||3||4||6||0||42||39 |- |2003-04||29||31||1||0||12||6||42||37 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2004-05||Chelsea||Premier League||25||4||3||1||9||0||37||5 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2005-06||Atlético Madrid||La Liga||30||8||3||2||-||-||33||10 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2006-07||rowspan="2"|Fenerbahçe||rowspan="2"|Super League||24||9||2||0||7||2||33||11 |- |2007-08||22||11||4||5||9||2||35||18 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2008-09||Paris Saint-Germain||Ligue 1||16||1||1||2||5||3||22||6 Template:Football player statistics 354||33||8||4||9||6||71||43 Template:Football player statistics 4122||105||10||8||40||13||172||126 Template:Football player statistics 425||4||3||1||9||0||37||5 Template:Football player statistics 430||8||3||2||-||-||33||10 Template:Football player statistics 446||20||6||5||16||4||68||29 Template:Football player statistics 416||1||1||2||5||3||22||6 Template:Football player statistics 5293||171||31||22||79||26||403||219 |}

Honours

Partizan

PSV

Chelsea

Fenerbahçe

Individual

References

  1. ^ "Mateja Kežman Profile". PSG.fr. Retrieved December 5, 2008.
  2. ^ Alpuin, Luis Fernando Passo; Mamrud, Roberto; Miladinovich, Misha (20 February 2009). "Yugoslavia (Serbia (and Montenegro)) - Record International Players". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 12 March 2009.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Dutch Footballer of the Year
2002-2003 		Succeeded by
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