Mario Gomez: Scorned In Italy, Adored In Turkey.

When Mario Gomez left Fiorentina on loan for Turkish side Besiktas  in the summer, many thought it was a retirement move to signal the end of his career.

The reason for that is that, after spending two seasons in Fiorentina (2013-2015),
Gomez was only able to play 29 league matches as injuries and lack of match fitness was a regular part of his time in Florence. At the end, Fiorentina felt they wasted the €20m that was used to sign him from Bayern Munich before sending him on loan to Turkey.  Such was the hype after his signing that a crowd of 20,000 people were present on his unveiling on 15 July 2013 in Florence.  At the end he ended up scoring only seven league goals in his two years stay.

Such was Mario's pedigree before his ill-fated move to Seria A, that he scored 63 goals in 121 league games for Stuttgart (2003-2009) and  75 goals in 115 games for Bayern Munich (2009-2013) winning the Bundesliga thrice with both teams, DFB-Pokal twice and the Champions League.

Since joining Besiktas , Gomez has been revitalised scoring 19 goals in 26 league games and providing two assists . He has a shot accuracy of 60% and has further created 16 chances with an average pass accuracy of 72%.  To buttress further , Gomez had scored 14 goals in just five months (August-December), of which 12 where in the league and two in the Europa League. Such has been his form that he was recalled by German coach Joachim  Loew for the friendlies against France and Netherlands in November .  Gomez was a regular in the German team up until the the 2013-2014 that injury ruled him out of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil (Germany went on to lift the trophy after defeating Argentina in the finals ) .

Such has been Mario's form, that Besiktas are currently topping the Turkish Super Lig with 63 points from 26 games. They are four points ahead of second placed rivals Fenerbahce. They have also scored 57 goals and conceded 24 in the process losing just thrice. After scoring in the 2-3 loss against England in the weekend , it won't be wrong to say that at 30, Mario Gomez has found his lost rich form again at just the right time to become Germany's main striker at the Euro's in the summer In France.