If indeed it was his farewell to the club, Mateja Kežman has certainly left PSV Eindhoven with something to remember him by. A hat-trick in his final game of the season, a 4-2 win at AZ Alkmaar on Sunday, saw the Serbo-Montenegrin striker put the seal on another sensational season in the Netherlands.
Three more strikes left the 25-year-old striker with 31 goals from 29 games. That meant that, for the third time in the four seasons he has spent at the Philips stadium, he was the top scorer in the Eredivisie. More significantly, he may also have become the club's most prolific striker of all time.
The former FK Zemun and FK Sartid player, who joined PSV in a €13.9 move from FK Partizan, has a staggering goalscoring record. In 122 games for PSV he has scored 105 goals - an average of 26.2 a season. It is an average that even the most glorious names in PSV's history cannot come close too.
Club greats like Ronaldo (season average 21.0), Ruud van Nistelrooij (20.7), Romario (19.6) and Belgium striker Luc Nilis (18.3) trail Kežman while Coen Dillen, the PSV striker from the who set an Eredivisie record with 43 goals in the 1956/57 season, was the Serbo-Montenegrin master's closest competitor with an average of 24.0.
Kežman's scoring feats have left the striker in eighth place in PSV's list of all-time top scorers, but it looks unlikely that he will rise further up the table. The player has made no secret of the fact that he believes he is ready to leave the club now, even though he is still under contract for next season.
"With PSV I have achieved everything already," he told the media a few weeks ago as he mused upon his future. "Top scorer, national title, Player of the Year - it is time for another challenge. Otherwise it will get harder and harder to stay motivated here."
While Kežman's goals helped PSV to rack up a huge total of 92 strikes for the season, it was not enough for them to beat AFC Ajax to the Dutch title, and that disappointment may be followed by several more as the summer goes on. There is a feeling that it may be the end of an era for the current team.
Winger Arjen Robben will go to join his new club, Chelsea FC, after the finals of UEFA EURO 2004™, while the club's Danish sporting director Frank Arnesen is also moving to London to take up a similar role with Tottenham Hotspur FC. And certainly, Kežman would like to join his old colleagues in England.
"My plan is as follows," he said. "I want to move to an middle-ranked English Premiership side, spend three seasons there, score an absolute minimum of ten to fifteen goals per season, qualify for one of the European competitions, and move as a proven player to a larger club.
Certainly, he made a good impression in England with his performances for PSV against Newcastle United FC in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals. Newcastle manager Sir Bobby Robson called him "a class act", adding: "He's a great goalscorer - he has an incredible record, good movement and is a good finisher."
Currently, FC Fulham are amongst the favourites to land his signature, although, FC Birmingham City and FC Aston Villa are considered to be rivals in the chase for the striker.
Talk Sport reported that Kezman was seen in West london last week.
Can Brum afford Kezman now that they bought Heskey for £6.5m (choke), And would Kezman go to Villa when they got Vassell and Angel???
Kezman at the Cottage...beautiful!
