Mateja Kezman - TheSportsDB.com

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Name
Mateja Kezman

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Born
1979 (45 years old)

Birth Place

Belgrade, Serbia

Position
Centre-Forward

Status

Ethnicity
White

Team Number

Height
182 cm

Outfitter

Kit

Side

Agent

Wage Year

Player Cutout

Full Body Render

Sport

Soccer

Team
_Retired Soccer

2nd Team

League
_No League Soccer

Creative Commons Artwork
No

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Mateja Kežman (Serbian Cyrillic: Матеја Кежман, pronounced ; 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. 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. 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.

His early career at Partizan was disrupted by NATO's airstrikes on Belgrade in 1999. 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 marked his senior international debut for FR Yugoslavia during March 2000 with a goal against China in a friendly match as part of the preparations for UEFA Euro 2000. Head coach Vujadin Boškov included him in the final 23-man roster that he took to Belgium and the Netherlands. Despite being the fourth attacking option behind Predrag Mijatović, Savo Milošević and Darko Kovačević, 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.

In February 2003, after embarrassing performances of the team during UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying, Kežman announced that he retired from the national jersey. However, Kežman returned to the team few months later, after Ilija Petković was appointed as the new coach.

Kežman led Serbia and Montenegro's scoring during the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifications with five 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.

After his sending off against Argentina at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Kežman did not receive any call up for his country's national team.

During his six-year career in the national team, Kežman scored 17 goals in 49 appearances.