Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 8y

Mario Gomez enjoying football again after loan switch to Besiktas

Mario Gomez has said he is back to his best and does not envisage returning to Fiorentina after enjoying a resurgence in form with Besiktas.

Germany forward Gomez spent two injury-hit seasons with Fiorentina before being loaned to the Turkish club for two years last summer.

He has rediscovered his best and earned a recall to the Germany squad, scoring his first international since 2012 in the 3-2 defeat to England on Saturday.

"I'm fit again and I'm enjoying my football again, which was certainly not the case for a long time [in Florence]," Gomez told kicker magazine.

"It's not just the fact I scored either -- I'm 30 now and even if not many people will believe me, I'm no longer so obsessed about goals. I'm old enough to know there are more important things.

"In terms of my fitness, I'm back where I want to be and that feels great. I've got this power again to be able to make the runs which help me play a good game.

"All of my efforts have paid off, and I always believed they would. Now I'm just going to try to carry on this way."

Gomez, the Turkish league top scorer with 19 goals in 26 appearances, saw a second goal against England ruled out for offside by Italian referee Gianluca Rocchi, and joked: "Italy's just not my thing.

"It would have made it 3-0 and they [England] probably wouldn't have turned it around, but the referee was Italian."

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