Mateja Kežman

Mateja Kežman (Матеја Кежман, ; born 12 April 1979) is a Serbian sports agent and former professional footballer who played as a striker.

Upon playing in his homeland, Kežman went on to play top-flight football in the Netherlands, England, Spain, Turkey, France, Russia, Hong Kong and Belarus.

In the summer of 1998.

At the age of 19, Kežman joined Partizan.

In the 1998/99 season.

He scored six goals in 22 league games, and won the championship title.

In that season, he drew attention to himself when, in the 111-th Eternal derby against Red Star, he scored a goal in the last minute, which gave Partizan a 2–1 victory.

His early career at Partizan was disrupted by NATO's airstrikes on Belgrade in 1999.

In the 1999/00 season.

Coach Miodrag Ješić takes the helm on the Partizan bench and then Kežman plays even better games.

He scored 27 goals in 32 league games.

However, (The Black-Whites) ended that season without a trophy.

In his two seasons at the club, Kežman made a name for himself as a prolific striker and became a favourite among the fans of the club.

He scored a total of 33 league goals in 54 appearances and was the top scorer of the national championship in the 1999–2000 season.

He was especially good in the eternal derbies with Red Star, because he scored the same number of goals in 5 games he played.

In the summer of 2000, Kežman completed his move to Dutch club PSV.

In his debut season, he was the league's top scorer, achieving 24 goals in 33 games as PSV won the title.

He also picked up the nickname 'Batman', because the famous theme song was played at Philips Stadion every time he scored.

He formed a successful partnership with Arjen Robben, and they gained the epithet 'Batman and Robben', a pun on Batman and Robin.

Kežman went to score 81 goals over the following three seasons with PSV.

His best season in terms of both goals and appearances was 2002–03 when he played 33 out of 34 of PSV's matches and scored 35 goals to help them win the title.

He is arguably best known for his career at PSV, earning numerous awards and worldwide recognition as having the potential to be one of the greatest strikers of his generation, being named Dutch Footballer of the Year in 2003.

Kežman was subsequently labeled as a flop after his spell at Chelsea, as there were extremely high expectations of him.

By the end of his illustrious career, he had amassed a record number of championship medals in the top-tier competitions of five different countries.

Internationally, Kežman represented FR Yugoslavia / Serbia and Montenegro in one European Championship and one World Cup.

After finishing his professional playing career, Kežman became a sports agent, currently representing Sergej Milinković-Savić among other players.

In 2003, he took protection when a Yugoslav criminal threatened to kidnap him and hold PSV to ransom.

Kežman is a devout member of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

During his time in the Netherlands, he prayed in the German city of Dortmund to retain his privacy.

Although he considers his addiction to tattoos to be a vice, his tattoos are of a religious theme, and while playing he wore an undershirt with a printed icon of Jesus; this drew media attention during his spell in Turkey.

He pledged to become a monk in the church.

Kežman spent the 2004–05 season at Chelsea and scored seven goals in 40 appearances in all competitions.

He was signed for the club on 13 July 2004 for £5.3 million by José Mourinho.

He wore the number 9 shirt left vacant by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's transfer to Middlesbrough.

He played 24 league games and scored four goals.

The first goal came on 4 December 2004 in a 4–0 victory over Newcastle United at home, with an injury time penalty after coming on as a substitute in the 61st minute.

He did not score again until 11 March 2005 in a 3–1 away victory over Norwich City, who were relegated at the end of the season.

Eight days later he scored twice at home against another team that would be relegated, Crystal Palace, as Chelsea won 4–1.

He also served as a director of football at Vojvodina in 2013.

Kežman's father Zlatko was also a footballer who played as a goalkeeper, spending the majority of his career with Zemun.