We're all singing Edin Dzeko! | OneFootball

As Edin Dzeko turns 40, we celebrate his time at City – and he recalls some incredible moments…

oberto Mancini wanted to add extra fire power to a forward line that already included Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli.

With Emmanuel Adebayor’s future at City in doubt, the Blues looked across Europe for a goal-scoring forward with aerial ability and good technical skill – and one name in particular stood out.

Edin Dzeko had been a prolific striker for Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg, netting 85 goals in 142 games over a three-year period.

At six-feet four inches and aged 24, the Bosnian international ticked all the boxes Mancini was looking for and City’s offer of £27million was reluctantly accepted by the German side.

In turn, Adebayor was allowed to join Real Madrid on loan as the Togolese made way for our new arrival.

“City came back in January and I’m just happy to be here.”

At his first interview for City TV, Dzeko was keen to quash the mischievous press reports that the Blues hadn’t been his first choice…

“Of course that’s not true,” he said. “City were always my first choice, and they were since last summer when I wanted to join, but Wolfsburg wouldn’t let me go at that stage.

“But City came back in January and I’m just happy to be here.”

Dzeko, who had been on a winter break in Germany, was given a week to train with his new team-mates, improve his English as best he could and acclimatise to his new surroundings before making his debut against Wolves at the Etihad choosing the vacant No.10 shirt for his new club.

He wouldn’t find the net that day but cut an imposing figure leading  the line alongside Tevez and he assisted Yaya Toure’s goal in a thrilling 4-3 victory.

During his time with City, Dzeko had a happy habit of coming up with some crucial goals, and his goal-scoring FA Cup debut at the end of January 2011 proved to be the first of many such strikes.

On a muddy, heavy pitch at Meadow Lane, the Blues took on League One side Notts County in a fourth round tie that screamed 'banana skin'.

And for 80 minutes, that’s exactly how the match evolved, with the hosts causing numerous problems and finally taking the lead on 59 minutes through Neal Bishop.

But Dzeko’s big moment came ten minutes from time as Micah Richards burst down the right and crossed in low for the Bosnian to thump a shot into the roof of the net and earn the Blues a replay.

His first Etihad goals – a brace scored on 7 and 12 minutes - would follow in a 3-0 win over Aris in the Europa League, but he would have to wait until the end of April to score his first Premier League goal in a vital 1-0 win away to Blackburn Rovers as Mancini’s men made a late bid for Champions League qualification.

City powered into a first FA Cup final for 30 years and though Dzeko would remain on the bench for the 1-0 win over Stoke at Wembley, he’d more than played his part in ending a 35-year wait for a major trophy.

Eight days later, he scored the goal that sealed a 2-0 win at Bolton on the final day of the Premier League season to secure Champions League football for the first time, so it had been a memorable first six month for the 25-year-old.

But if that had been an impressive introduction to City life, his second campaign was the stuff of fairy-tales.

The Blues added Sergio Aguero to create possibly the most feared strike force in world football, with Tevez, Balotelli and Dzeko completing an outstanding quartet.

Dzeko started with a thunderous goal in the Community Shield against Manchester United, but the Blues saw a 2-0 half-time lead eventually become a 3-2 loss and he was denied his second winner’s medal in the space of three months.

On Aguero’s debut a week later, it was Dzeko who opened the scoring before the Argentine came off the bench to score twice and assist David Silva in a 4-0 victory over Swansea.

And his goal away to Bolton in the next match secured a 3-2 win for Mancini’s side, but Dzeko’s moment in the sun would come at White Hart Lane in our third league game of the 2011/12 campaign.

City travelled to North London to take on Spurs, and this would be the day Edin Dzeko truly arrived in English football.

The Blues, inspired by debutant Samir Nasri, would win 5-1 against Spurs and Dzeko would bag four of the goals including a close range volley, a superb header, a predatory close range finish and a stunning 20-yard curling effort.

''Today was something special for me,'' Dzeko said after the game. ''We're getting better and better. I hope we can improve in the next game and try to win every game.''

Seven goals in four matches – Dzeko was starting to show the prolific nature of his goal-scoring that had seen his star rise rapidly.

It would be a wonderful season for a player known as the 'Bosnian Diamond' back in his homeland, with numerous highs as City battled with Manchester United for a first top flight title in 44 years.

And with Tevez’s public falling out with Mancini leading to the Argentine’s exile for several months, there was more burden placed on Dzeko’s shoulders in the months that followed.

Arguably, the highlight of that season – bar a certain game on the final day – was the October 2011 Manchester derby at Old Trafford.

Dzeko started the game on the bench as he watched his team-mates open up a 3-0 lead before replacing Balotelli on 70 minutes.

The Reds pulled one back on 81, but there was to be City charge as the clocked ticked to 90 minutes.

“When you go back to watch the goals and see what we did? My God, it makes you happy."

Joleon Lescott managed to reach a ball and cross for Dzeko to make it 4-1 on 90 and a minute later, David Silva added a fifth.

But the final coup-de-grace was reserved for our Bosnian No.10 who collected a sumptuous volleyed through ball from Silva before drilling a low shot through David de Gea to make it a record-equalling 6-1.

The image of Dzeko running to the City fans with five fingers up on one hand and one on the other will live long in the memory of every supporter of a sky blue persuasion for many years to come.

And he would continue to score vital goals all season, but with the return of Tevez for the final weeks of the campaign, he was not always a guaranteed starter.

With six matches to go, the Blues had fallen eight points behind United in the title race and it looked all but over.

But, somehow, City ate away at the deficit, beat the Reds 1-0 at the Etihad and won a tense 2-0 victory at Newcastle to set up a final day drama against QPR.

Dzeko was named sub that sunny afternoon in May, with Mancini preferring Aguero and Tevez as his starting strikers and had to watch a seesaw game as City led 1-0, went 2-1 down to 10-man QPR before he was summoned on 69 minutes to replace Gareth Barry.

"Roberto Mancini is right when he talks about the goosebumps from that day. Something like this will never happen again. I really believe it. The championship we won that day will stay forever in our hands."

Balotelli also joined the action in place of Tevez seven minutes later and both would have huge parts to play as first Dzeko headed the Blues level two minutes into added time, and Super Mario assisted Aguero’s winner less than two minutes later.

It was incredible and in Edin’s first 18 months, he had helped us win the FA Cup and secure a first league title in 44 years. Not a bad record!

He remembers the moment fondly: "When you go back to watch the goals and see what we did? My God, it makes you happy. All that season I kept thinking: 'we are going to win this' but to win it in the way we did completely changes the story.

"Roberto Mancini is right when he talks about the goosebumps from that day. Something like this will never happen again. I really believe it. The championship we won that day will stay forever in our hands.

"I thought beforehand: 'we are at home; we play for the title after 44 years. There is no way we cannot finish this.’ When Zaba scored, I thought it would be easy… 3-0.

"But in football, nothing is easy. When I came on at 1-2, I was like: 'just try everything you can.’  When I scored, I went crazy: 'Come on guys! Let's go!' But you know what? If you try to do what we did on a PlayStation today, you wouldn't have the time to score two goals in two minutes. Crazy.

"You saw the look on my face. I ran to the halfway line. There was no time to think about anything else, we just had to get forward. Even the fans who left the stadium would have started to believe; they came back and thought we could do it. And we did.”

Dzeko’s contribution of 19 goals in 43 games that campaign is perhaps sometimes overlooked, but it was a vital part of City’s success in 2011/12, and it ensured his popularity would last long after he moved to pastures new.

Reaching such highs again was never going to be easy, and though City couldn’t retain the Premier League crown in 2012/13, finishing runners-up and also losing a disappointing FA Cup final to Wigan Athletic – which cost manager Mancini his job -  he still managed 15 goals in 45 games.

But the arrival of Manuel Pellegrini would result in Edin’s best goals return yet as the Blues played a brand of entertaining, attacking football that ensured the Bosnian was well-fed throughout what would be a second Premier League title-winning season in three years.

There were plenty of highs, too.

He celebrated his 50th goal for the Club against Crystal Palace in December, and though he had to play a supporting role to the Aguero and new signing Alvaro Negredo partnership, when Negredo injured his shoulder at West Ham in January, Dzeko took the reins in spectacular fashion.

City won the Carabao Cup against Sunderland, and though Edin wasn’t on the scoresheet at Wembley, his six goals along the way helped the Blues get there and he finished – with Negredo – the joint top scorer in the competition.

He was on target in (another) 5-1 away win at Spurs and he bagged a brace at Old Trafford for the second time in three years as City thumped United 3-0 – his first becoming the fastest away goal scored there coming after just 43 seconds, and his goals in the crucial run were gold dust.

"I'm really happy here at City, it's a second home to me, and there are still so many objectives and goals that I want to reach from my career"

He bagged the opener in a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace in late April as the Blues hunted down Liverpool’s lead at the top of the table and with three games remaining, Dzeko scored twice in a nail-biting 3-2 win away to Everton and a few days later, he scored the first two second-half goals in a crucial 4-0 win over Aston Villa in our penultimate game.

That took the Blues top of the table and a 2-0 win over West Ham on the final day crowned Pellegrini’s men champions with Dzeko finishing with 26 goals from 48 appearances.

Edin penned a new four-year deal that would have taken him up to the age of 32, and he said at the time: "Over the last three and a half years we've made history together, but I feel like we are only at the start of something really special.

"I'm really happy here at City, it's a second home to me, and there are still so many objectives and goals that I want to reach from my career in the game and I believe that I am in the perfect place to achieve them all.”

City wouldn’t reach such highs again under Pellegrini and the 2014/15 campaign would be Edin’s last.

The Blues won the final six games to finish runners-up to Chelsea, but the goals had dried up for Dzeko who went on a 15-game run without scoring and would only manage six in 32 games, and he later admitted a fall-out with Pellegrini was the reason he decided to leave City.

“I was at the best moment of my career, and I didn't want to be on the bench, so I chose Roma,” he said.

The Blues agreed an initial season-long loan with Roma for Edin’s services, but this became permanent a few months into the deal and the Bosnian Diamond ended his time in Manchester having scored 72 goals in 189 matches.

After six seasons with Roma, he joined Inter Milan, then Fenerbahce followed by Fiorentina and now Schalke 04.

In 2022, during a rendition of ‘Hey Jude’ at Oktoberfest in Germany, Edin spontaneously began singing ‘City’ to the nah-nah-nah-nah part of The Beatles’ classic.

It was filmed, and of course, the Blues’ support quickly discovered the clip.

“Obviously I know the song from my City days and especially when we won the Premier League for the first time, it was something everyone was singing,” recalled Edin.

“When I heard the song being played at the Oktoberfest, it was just a spontaneous reaction to shout ‘City!’ instead of ‘Hey Jude’. It was from the heart, and it just came out of me without even thinking.

“At that time (in 2022), I didn’t know that the City fans still sang my name! It’s great to know and hopefully it will continue for many years to come. It’s a great feeling and it means that I did some good things for the club – it makes me proud that the City fans haven’t forgotten me.

“I always had a good relationship with them and having been at City for almost five years, it’s not easy to forget the things we did during that time.

“When you’re at a club, you are training and playing, and everything is going on around you, and you don’t realise how connected you are and how much you love the club – that’s how I felt after I left.

“Since I left, I follow every City game in every competition and it’s just natural for me because I feel it is still my club, even if I’m not there anymore.”

Now, in his 23rd (!) season as a professional footballer, he has made 916 career appearances and scored 386 goals.

Add 146 starts for Bosnia and a further 72 goals and he can reflect on a magnificent career in years to some.

And now, as he turns 40, everyone at Manchester City wishes Edin a very happy birthday.

No wonder our fans are still singing songs about Edin Dzeko, more than a decade after he left…

Feature: David Clayton 

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