Samir Nurkovic will hope to have finally found a settled home after a restless career that has taken him to 10 clubs in his eight-year professional career, as he now emerges as one of the key players at Kaizer Chiefs this season.
Nurkovic’s past is one of frustration and missed opportunities as injuries have stalled him, but the last two years he has seen an upswing in fortunes and his arrival in the Premier Soccer League has been a breath of fresh air.
As a youngster growing up in the tiny Serbian town of Tutin, his first love was basketball, but once he switched to football at the age of nine, the bug bit and he later joined the academy of top club Partizan Belgrade.
Regarded as one of the finest youth programmes in Europe, the academy has brought through a number of notable players, including former Serbia internationals Saša Ilić and Savo Milošević, and even ex-Chiefs and Orlando Pirates coach Vladimir Vermezović.
Despite this, strong doubts remained in his own mind over whether he would make it as a professional, and what followed has been a ‘scrappy’ career, mostly spent in the second division in lowly Slovakia.
But his fortunes changed when he joined second-tier Komarno at the start of the 2017/18 season, and went on a goalscoring spree that made plenty sit up and take notice, including Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp.
His record of 35 goals in 41 appearances over two campaigns is simply superb, and while the quality of the league he was playing in may have contributed to that, it also shows a player who can both create chances for himself and finish them off.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2019-Ausgabe von Kickoff.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2019-Ausgabe von Kickoff.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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The Best Of South Africa's Clasico
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‘There is more coming'
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‘I should have won 12 times'
Samuel Eto’o announced his retirement from professional football in 2019 and leaves behind a legacy that many consider sees him as the greatest African footballer of all time with 18 major titles won for club and country. KICK OFF’s Lorenz Kohler sat down with the four-time CAF African Player of the Year at the Duqesa de Cardona hotel in Barcelona before El Clasico to find out his role in the Castle Lager Africa Fives project and look back on an iconic career that started back in 1997.
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Should He Stay Or Should He Go?
Three months after taking over Orlando Pirates, Rhulani Mokwena hasn’t elevated the club to where the fans expected. This has naturally raised questions about whether it was premature to hand him the job. KICK OFF’s Lovemore Moyo investigates Mokwena’s appointment, tenure and what could possibly be the way forward.
‘We Know How To Win The League'
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Chiefs' Missing Link
Kaizer Chiefs’ excellent start to the 2019/20 Premier Soccer League season has been a great team effort, but there is one man who stands out head and shoulders above the rest as the catalyst for their upturn in fortunes. Serbian striker Samir Nurkovic was a little-known journeyman forward before he arrived at Naturena at the beginning of the campaign, but has almost single-handedly improved the side’s attacking fortunes. KICK OFF’s Nick Said investigates what makes Nurkovic such a quality addition and why he can fire Chiefs to the league title.
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Having joined as a relatively unknown striker, with no eye-popping history of his ability, Gustavo Paez has begun to settle in well at Kaizer Chiefs over the last six months, and is looking to help Amakhosi return to their glory days in the 2017/18 Premier Soccer League season. Everyone took a dig at his journeyman background and they expected to see another failed mercenary unpack their suitcase at Naturena. Oh, how wrong they were …
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