Edin Džeko: Schalke boost promotion push with signature of serial goalscorer
Promotion-chasing Schalke have signed Edin Džeko from Fiorentina. We break down what the veteran striker with a proven track record at the highest level will bring to the Royal Blues...
Signed by Schalke to power their promotion charge back to the Bundesliga, and working under Bosnian-Austrian Miron Muslić, Džeko's move to the Ruhr Valley appears to tick all the right - on paper at least.
For many, the forward is still best known for his spell at Manchester City, and his role in the club's dramatic 2011/12 English Premier League title triumph. However, before the powerful striker arrived in England, he powered another club to their maiden league crown.
Wolfsburg legend
Džeko arrived in the Bundesliga in the summer of 2007 from Teplice, and it didn’t take long for him to redefine what was possible in the Autostadt. In just 111 league appearances for Wolfsburg, the Bosnian scored 66 goals, a tally that still makes him the club’s all-time leading Bundesliga goalscorer. He found the net, on average, once every 136 minutes - a level of consistency that underpinned Wolfsburg’s rise from mid-table mediocrity to champions of Germany.
Watch: Edin Džeko - Made in the Bundesliga
Around the time of his arrival at Wolfsburg, Džeko made his senior international debut for Bosnia-Herzegovina. His first two goals for his nation were a sign of things to come. A goal and an assist against Turkey and Malta on home soil cemented his status as a true rising star of Bosnian football.
Over the following two decades, the goals have flowed with staggering regularity, epitomised best by his record-breaking spell between September 2008 and October 2009, when the forward scored in eight consecutive games.
To this very day, he continues to rattle them in for Bosnia, as the side’s captain and talisman. He has set national records for appearances (146) and goals (72), and even led the side to their first – and to date only – FIFA World Cup finals in 2014. Naturally, Džeko was on the scoresheet for Bosnia’s only win in Brazil against Iran.
A campaign for the ages
Wolfsburg's 2008/09 title win ranks as one of the most extraordinary in Bundesliga history, and Džeko was the chief architect of the success. Partnered by Grafite, he scored 26 league goals, finishing second in the scoring charts behind his strike partner (28).
Together, Džeko and Grafite produced the most prolific strike partnership the Bundesliga has ever seen. Their 54 combined goals remain a league record for a single season, surpassing the legendary Bayern Munich duo of Gerd Müller and Uli Hoeneß.
Even more remarkably, 2008/09 is still the only Bundesliga season in which two players from the same club both scored more than 20 goals.
Džeko’s contribution was especially devastating after the winter break. Twenty-one of his 26 goals came in the Rückrunde, making him the second-highest second-half scorer in Bundesliga history, behind only Gerd Müller’s 23 goals in 1971/72.
In the final five matches alone, Džeko scored 10 goals, driving Wolfsburg’s historic charge from ninth at the halfway stage to the Meisterschale – a turnaround still unmatched in Bundesliga history.
Watch: Džeko's top 5 Bundesliga goals
From champion to top scorer
Džeko followed up the title-winning season by claiming the 2009/10 Torjägerkanone, finishing as the Bundesliga’s top scorer with 22 goals.
Lengthy goal droughts were rare. Across his Bundesliga career, he went more than six matches without scoring only once, during his debut season. By January 2011, Europe’s elite came calling, and Džeko left Germany, having already cemented his place among the league’s great number nines.
His time in England with Manchester City wouldn’t be quite as prolific, but his impact on a club, yet to win a Premier League title at the time of his arrival, was just as seismic. Across a five-year spell, he scored 72 goals, as well as lifting the Premier League and FA Cup.
In 2016, Dzeko swapped the Etihad for the Stadio Olimpico by joining Roma. Once again, he became a cult hero thanks to his predatory instincts in and around the 18-yard box. A goal almost every other game while at the club tells its own story.
He may have left the Italian capital without a trophy to his name, but with Džeko at the spearhead of the attack, Roma reached new heights, achieving their biggest Serie A points tally in the post-war era under Luciano Spalletti. The following season, I Giallorossi reached the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League, where they were eventually thwarted by a resurgent Liverpool.
Another giant of Italian football swooped to sign him in 2021, as Džeko joined Inter Milan. Heartbreak in the Champions League would follow him to San Siro, as he lost out in the 2023 final to his former side, Man City. However, he’d break his trophy drought at Inter with back-to-back Coppa Italia triumphs.
Most recently, the veteran forward has spent time at Fenerbahçe and Fiorentina, before joining Schalke on 22 January 2026. At the age of 39, Die Königsblauen fans will be hoping for the ultimate Džeko swan song, akin to Simon Terodde’s 2021/22 campaign, where the Bundesliga 2 legend steered them to a memorable title and promotion.
History still within reach
Set to turn 40 in March, Džeko’s arrival at Schalke is not merely a headline-grabbing transfer – it's also potentially historic. Should he score in Bundesliga 2, Džeko would surpass Helmut Haller as the oldest goalscorer in the division’s history, a record currently standing at 39 years and 219 days.
At the time of his arrival, Schalke find themselves top of the table, four points clear of second-placed Elversberg. Muslić’s promotion tilt is built on a solid defensive foundation, but could use a boost at the other end of the pitch.
Star striker Moussa Sylla is without a goal in his last eight games, while the side overall has scored fewer goals than relegation-threatened Dynamo Dresden. In Džeko, they might just have found the perfect man to improve their fortunes in front of goal.
Nearly two decades after his arrival, Džeko’s name still carries weight in Germany. At Schalke, he has the chance to add another glorious chapter to his storied career, and become a cult hero in Gelsenkirchen in the process.
Related news
Potential banana skins for top three
Schalke, Elversberg and Darmstadt all dropped points last time out - will they return to winning ways this weekend?
Muslić: 'We respect and like each other'
With his team top of Bundesliga 2, the Schalke tactician discusses the importance of a good relationship between club and fans, a winning mentality and more
Bundesliga 2 transfer centre: January 2026
Read up on all the ins and outs across Germany's second tier throughout the newly opened winter window...