Turkey is unfinished business for Menemenspor of Turkey new signing Simon Zenke as he returns to score on his debut. IKENWA NNABUOGOR reckons he’s back with a bag full of goals … and a few tricks…
Ten years ago, Simon Terwase Zenke was a goal banger every club in and outside Turkey wanted after he went on a sweet goal-scoring spree with Samsunspor, winning the top scorer’s award and ensuring an instant promotion to the Turkish Super Lig.
Such was the promise with which he stormed the Turkish top flight to ruffle feathers with the big boys, but it was a tough road for the former Nancy striker, who could only find the back of the net a disappointing once.
It was a rude shock for the Kaduna-born striker who would struggle afterwards to find a regular scoring range and the stories that trailed that were not palatable.
Nancy, his second French club in his career, grabbed him over with a view to ending his trying time in Turkey.
Zenke only managed a handful of appearances in France and returned to Turkish football which was fast turning to be better for him than France since he turned professional as a schoolboy sensation.
His top-scoring feat at Samsunspor remains unequalled till date even after he returned to Turkey again after his unimpressive stint at Nancy, scoring a combined total of 11 goals for four Turkish clubs before he left for Belgium to continue his search for goals.
Injuries were also not fair to him as he was badly slowed down as he tried to get back to scoring ways at Belgian lower side Tubize.
He started well, but halfway through the monster showed up again and scuttled his well-mapped out goalscoring plans.
Regional football back “home” in France, where he holds a citizenship and lives with his family, threw a lifeline for the former Strasbourg striker who had just won a battle with injuries and it appears he’s finally come good with his recent move to Turkey.
Zenke got a lot to prove, a lot on his plate, though, at 32, with age catching up, at least, to prove he can still repeat his superb top scoring feat at Samsunspor.
Menemenspor welcomed him back to Turkey and the struggling side couldn’t have asked for a better repayment of confidence and promise than his game-winning exploits against Altinordu on his debut.
Personally, there’s a whole lot on the cards for Zenke and he knows it – getting on the score sheet as much as possible will do his world a lot of good, plus helping his side in their fight to stay up.
Smart money will be on Zenke to do just that.
