This being the close season, it seems fitting to return to some of the hottest summer transfer window acquisitions of the past decade and have a look where they are today
Andreas Prohorenkovs
The Latvian striker, who was part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad that won the club's last championship in the 2002/3 season, opened last March his sixth campaign for the Latvian side Liepājas Metalurgs in the Latvian Higher (Premier) League. After leaving Maccabi at the end of the 2004/5 season, Prohorenkovs spent time at a number of clubs in Russia, Spain, Latvia and Greece before returning to club of his youth during the 2008/9 season. In his second season at Liepājas Metalurgs he won the Latvian championship but his club were eliminated from the Champions's League qualifiers in the second round after consecutive losses to Czech Republic champions Sparta Prague. In the past five seasons he has managed only 13 goals, due perhaps to the fact that he has been moved to a midfield position. After eight rounds this season, Prohorenkovs has spent only 68 minutes on the pitch in two appearances from the bench, with his club Metalurgs sitting at mid-table.
Emile Mbamba
Moments after Maccabi Tel Aviv made history by qualifying for the group stages of the Champions League after the 2004/5 season, a decision was made to strengthen the squad by taking on the young Cameroonian striker Emile Bertrand Mbamba from the Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem. Despite playing in all five of Maccabi's Champions League group stage matches, Mbamba failed to leave his mark on the proceedings. After a league season that saw him score only three goals, he moved on to the Indonesian football league where he played for five different clubs before signing last season for Persema Malang and finishing as the team's leading goal scorer with 11 goals. Mbamba, Persema Malang's only foreign player, has yet to score this season after nine league rounds with his club languishing one place from the bottom of the table.
Eugen Trica
In the summer of 2005, better known as Maccabi Tel Aviv's "Galacticos" season, Romanian striker Eugen Trică arrived in Israel, bringing with him impressive credentials from the Bulgarian football league. But his career in Israel was short, and in January of 2006 he returned to Bulgaria after having scored just once in nine league appearances in Israel. The second half of the season saw him win the Bulgarian league championship and reach the Bulagarian Football Association Cup final with his side PFC CSKA Sofia. In his second season with the club he scored 15 goals and spent the next year and a half at the Romanian Liga I side CFR Cluj. As in the past, his first season with the club was outstanding and produced 13 goals, but in the following half year his form declined, producing only two goals, and he was sent out on loan till the end of the season to the Cypriot side Anortosis Famagusta. The final three years of his career Trică spent as player-coach at the Romanian sides Universitatea Craiova and Juventus Bucharest before taking over as head coach at CFR Cluj in April this year.
Miljan Merdakovic
When Serbian striker Miljan Merdakovic joined Maccabi Tel Aviv under the stewardship of Eli Cohen in the 2006/7 season, word was already out about his problems finishing a season at one club. He was only 24 when he arrived in Tel Aviv but he had already played for seven different clubs in five different leagues. In his first league match he scored against Beitar Jerusalem after a dazzling individual effort covering half the pitch and finished the season with eight goals and four assists in 29 league appearances. Despite this impressive start, head coach Eli Cohen decided at the end of his first season to release Mrdaković, who made his way to the Portuguese side Vitoria de Gimariis. After one season in which he scored eight goals, the striker made the long trip to China, where for the first time in his career spent two consecutive seasons for the same club, Shandong Luneng.
Despite this perseverance, Merdakovic began to miss the Mediterranean climate and once again decided to pack his bags and in the summer of 2009 arrived at the Cypriot side Apollon Limassol, where after just half a season found himself out on loan to fellow Cypriot side Ethnikos Achnas, where he managed to score eight goals till the end of the season. In the 2010/11 season he returned to Apollon Limassol, where he enjoyed the most successful year of his career scoring 26 goals. This success brought him a fat contract at yet another Cypriot side, AEK Larnaca, where he scored eight goals before spending another half year in China (Jiangsu Sainty). He returned last summer for a mediocre season at still another Cypriot side, Enosis Neon Paralimni. At present Miljan Merdakovic's future is in limbo as he waits for offers from other clubs. After making comebacks in a long list of leagues in countries that include Belguim, Serbia, China and Cyprus, who knows, perhaps Israel will be next on his list.
