Of all the sub-plots in Saturday's Champions League final, the return of Edin Dzeko to the minds of Manchester City fans is one of the more intriguing.
The scorer of one of City's most important ever goals, Dzeko's legacy at the Etihad is summed up by his afternoon on May 13, 2012. Without Dzeko, City wouldn't have won the Premier League for the first time. They wouldn't have seven Premier League titles to their name, and maybe they wouldn't have reached two Champions League finals in the relatively short timeframe that they have since that famous day 11 years ago.
Dzeko's injury-time equaliser against QPR gave City hope of the impossible that day, but it would be Sergio Aguero who rightly took the headlines from the most dramatic end to a season imaginable. Just as it was for his entire four-year spell at City, Dzeko was forced to live in Aguero's shadow.
The Bosnian has spoken of his relationship with City - from their fans to former teammates and ex-managers - in the language of an ex-partner. Dzeko left on loan after the partnership soured, although there remains a mutual respect between player and club. Now, as they prepare to reunite for the first time, few would have expected their paths to cross again in the Champions League final on Saturday.
ALSO READ: Bernardo Silva predicts what Pep Guardiola will tell Man City squad before Champions League final
The respect for Dzeko from the City side comes from his 72 goals in 189 appearances, which represents a mightily impressive return from a striker forever battling with someone like Aguero. Add his 38 assists, and Dzeko contributed a goal every 0.77 games, or every 100 minutes. Only seven players have scored more goals for City in the Premier League, and he helped the Blues lift the FA Cup in 2011, qualify for the Champions League, win the Premier League twice and also win the League Cup.
It's a measure of his efforts that City fans still sing his name at the Etihad eight years after his last game for the club. He will surely get a fitting reception at the Ataturk Stadium on Saturday when his unlikely journey since leaving City brings him full-circle on the biggest stage of all.
Dzeko has admitted that he left Manchester in 2015, initially on loan, because he and Manuel Pellegrini had a falling out over his playing time. Probably fairly, Dzeko felt like he should be playing more, but Pellegrini didn't agree. The combination of Aguero and Dzeko fighting for the same starting spot had become untenable.
"I was at the best moment of my career and I didn't want to be on the bench, so I chose Roma,' Dzeko told Corriere della Sport last year. "I do not regret it at all, on the contrary. By the way, I left England with a three-year contract, I did not agree with coach Manuel Pellegrini in City."
It wasn't just Aguero in Dzeko's way, though, as he told Roma's website in 2019: "There was always four top quality strikers there," he said. "So we didn’t play all the time. That's why I wasn't always happy, you know, but with so much quality in the team that’s the battle you always have to face.
"We had Sergio, [Carlos] Tevez, at different times there was [Steven] Jovetic, [Mario] Balotelli, [Alvaro] Negredo, [Emmanuel] Adebayor, [Wilfried] Bony… so many strikers were at the club in that period.
"But I always had a good understanding with Sergio when he played, I thought we complemented each other quite well. We played well together, the tall and small partnership suited us well."
That adds to his claim of a disagreement with Pellegrini, and he quickly proved his ability with an impressive spell at Roma, where his loan was made permanent in 2016. 119 goals and 54 assists came in 260 appearances, with Roma fans loving the Bosnian as much as City fans did. 29 of those goals came in the 2016/17 Serie A season, earning him the Golden Boot.
Dzeko was showing City what they were missing out on, at a time when Pellegrini's tenure was coming to an end and the Pep Guardiola era was laying the groundwork before really taking off.
In fact, before moving to Inter Milan in 2021, he was strongly linked with a loan move to City in the January transfer window as Aguero was suffering with injury problems.
"He's a Roma player and I will never discuss this kind of situation," said Guardiola at the time. "I never put pressure on Sergio and Gabriel to solve all the problems we have up front. The reason why we score goals and win games is because our game itself is better, nothing more secret."
After another player-manager relationship came to a natural end at Roma, Dzeko signed for Inter Milan in 2021, replacing Romelu Lukaku, and he has continued his fine form despite hitting 37 in March. If he plays in the Champions League final, it will be his 101st appearance for Inter, for whom he has scored 31 goals and registered 31 assists. Possibly his best moment for Inter was his semi-final volley into the top corner from a corner against bitter rivals AC Milan. Not a bad reminder of what he can offer.
Now, he will hope to cap a fine career with a Champions League win of his own, even if it comes against his former club. Maybe that would be even sweeter given the manner of his departure, although he seemed genuinely hopeful after his semi-final first-leg goal vs Milan that he would be able to face his old club in the final if given the chance.
City will know more than most of Dzeko's record of proving the doubters wrong, though, and they would be unwise to underestimate the striker and any point he may want to prove.
"Maybe they appreciate me even more now than when I was there," he said in the 2019 interview, of how he is viewed at City.
"When you are there, people can get used to you. Things can change, if you have a good game, if you have a bad game. Mostly it depends on the results of the team.
"And then when you leave… it can be the same as with a girl; only when they leave do you realise what you actually had in the first place!"
City may have some regrets over this particular ex, but won't spend too much time looking over their shoulder given their successes since Dzeko departed. Both parties have moved on and seem happy with their new lives - and as fate would have it they will now come face to face in the final to win the biggest trophy of them all.
There will be a cordial, respectful mood, and City fans will sing Dzeko's name as they always do. Just don't expect the pleasantries to go much further than that as a complicated relationship is given an unexpected reunion this weekend.
READ NEXT:
