Round-Up: Mehmet Ekici

On a weekly schedule, miasanrot.com provides a 2-for-1 information combo meal. It contains a link list to (hopefully) worthwhile texts about the red giant. Each round-up is dedicated to a former Bayern player who is celebrating his birthday in that week.

Felix

March 23, 2016

At the young age of seven Mehmet Ekici joined the youth department of FC Bayern. By then he had already played for two years for SpVgg Unterhaching – a prime example of early scouting. The German-Turk went through all youth divisions and was part of the amateur team by 2010, where he played in 70 games. In his only season in the first team Ekici did not play and was loaned out to 1. FC Nürnberg for one year. Despite a strong season at the Club with 32 games, FC Bayern did not have enough faith in him and sold him to Werder Bremen for five million Euros in 2011. In Bremen Ekici had a hard time in filling the shoes of Mesut Özil, who had left Werder one year earlier. For three years he stayed with the Green-Whites, but could not prevail, before moving to Turkey in 2014. At Trabzonspor he finally had his breakthrough: He scored ten goals in his first season, some of them very beautiful free kicks. He also had convincing performances this season until his injury in early January.

Mehmet Ekici had an early start at FC Bayern at the age of seven, but it took some time for his career as a senior to take off. He has eventually found his game in Turkey.

We congratulate Mehmet Ekici to his 26th birthday!

Press review

I can’t get jUve out of my head

These articles about the second leg against Juve didn’t make the deadline for the last round-up: TT analyzed Juve’s combination of high pressing and deep defending against Bayern’s final third attacking. Whereas Michael Cox puts his focus on the impact of the subs and Bayern’s late domination.

In a video on Vimeo István Beregi also explains the pressing formation and movements by Juventus and shows why Bayern often have trouble against opponent’s 5-4-1 formations.

And yes, Bayern needed all their luck (aka efficiency) to turn the game around.

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Nevertheless, the team is able to put up some nice stats in the Champions League.
https://twitter.com/ChampionsLeague/status/712257021781876736

The old man and his goals

On These Football Times Tom Mason is looking at the unlikely success story of Luca Toni, the late developer that eventually conquered the Serie A, bagged a World Cup, impressed at Bayern, fell out with LvG and became one of the famous Italian strikers that don’t seem to get worse with age. Moreover he managed to accomplish all that by doing that:

At times he bludgeons his way through defences, the ball bobbling off his shins, carrying himself with all the grace of a cow falling down the stairs. At others, he’s a hulking mass with flailing limbs with only a limited sense of control over them. And yet, there is a beauty in his brutality, seeing this unorthodox force dismantling the cuckoo-clock-precise Italian defences.