Edin Dezko next club: Premier League return on the cards for the all-conquering goalscorer?
It’s often said the beautiful game’s most difficult skill is goalscoring and very few make it look so easy that it becomes an art form.
While there’s no denying Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have rewritten the rulebook over the years, we can’t exactly categorise them as ‘No.9s’ like Harry Kane or Robert Lewandowski, for example.
Edin Dzeko
- Age: 34
- Serie A stats (from 2016/17 season onwards)
- Games played: 156 (12,680 minutes)
- Goals: 77 (second-highest)
- Headed goals: 14 (third-highest)
- Chances created: 1.5 per 90 minutes
- Football Index value: £0.11 (Sell) – £0.20 (Buy)
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Both Kane and Lewandowski are the quintessential modern striker, with Bayern Munich’s marksman-in-chief recently having been crowned Europe’s best footballer.
Given the undeniable importance of their position, clubs everywhere are determined to have a reliable leading man. However, those cut from the same cloth as Kane and Lewandowski are few and far between, and that’s before considering who is actually on the market. Which brings us to AS Roma skipper Edin Dzeko, who is (once again) reportedly linked with ending a near six-year stay at the Giallorossi.
The 34-year-old Bosnian international recently trained alone following a reported falling-out with Paulo Fonseca, a risky move for Roma considering what he has produced for them since joining from Manchester City; to put it in numerical form, he has scored 114 goals across 242 matches in all competitions.
So far this season, Dzeko has scored seven league goals from 32 shots, making him Roma’s joint-second best scorer behind the rejuvenated Henrikh Mkhitaryan (eight). But given Dzeko’s knack of regularly finding the net, a departure could end up hurting Roma.
And their loss would be someone’s gain. Dzeko has already been linked with a return to English football, where many teams remember his 50-goal spell for Man City in the Premier League across 130 games. It’s also worth noting that, although rarely being a guaranteed starter, Dzeko only failed to reach double figures in the league in two of his five seasons at the Etihad.
Everton, managed by former Roma midfielder Carlo Ancelotti, are rumoured to be keeping tabs but considering the talent he currently has on the books it could turn into an unnecessary problem for the Italian tactician. West Ham, who said goodbye to Sebastian Haller this month, is another potential destination and there’s certainly room as forward Michail Antonio currently undertakes those scoring duties.
But if a return to England’s top division isn’t on the cards then why not conquer another major European league? Both Real Madrid and Barcelona are reportedly monitoring his present situation, according to Mundo Deportivo. The former Wolfsburg man is the first player to score at least 50 goals in the Bundesliga, Premier League and Serie A, so there could be some desire to test himself in Spain.
Considering the advancement of diet and nutrition, as well as personal fitness, players are now playing at the highest level well into their 30s. Real and Barça can also offer him the required creative players to feed off; the latter already boasts compatriot Miralem Pjanić, who in 119 previous games together (for the Bosnian national team and Roma) combined for 15 goals with Dzeko scoring all but three.
