Darius Vassell has revealed all about his incredibly crazy year spent in Turkey.
The former England star joined Turkish side Ankaragucu, based in capital Ankara, in 2009 in the twilight of his career after leaving Manchester City.
Having made over 200 appearances playing for City and Aston Villa, Vassell was given a cultural awakening on his arrival in his new country.
After touching down to sign his contract, the striker was greeted by around 3,000 fans at the airport.
The supporters mobbed their new hero before chanting his name, draping him in club colours, let off flares before 50 buses and 250 cars followed him to the hotel.
Vassell writes in his new book The Road to Persia and serialised by the Guardian: "People were bouncing up and down, chanting: “Dar-ee-us Varr-sell, Dar-ee-us Varr-sell, Olé, Olé, Olé!” As I made my way through the crowds, I was given a club scarf to wear and then another couple of scarves and a shirt was draped over me.
"It was the kind of reception you would have expected for a world leader, someone like Nelson Mandela, or a rock star, not an English footballer visiting a Turkish football club."
Three weeks later Vassell underwent a medical at the Super Lig outfit.
He added: "I returned to Ankara to sign the agreement and then there was the most thorough of medical tests I’ve ever been through. I had my whole body tested, my eyes, even my hair was inspected.
"I knew my signing was big for them, but it really hit home at this point how serious this was for them. Put it this way, I felt like I was in a film being prepped to go to space."
Vassell, who scored six times in 22 appearances for the Three Lions, spent just one season in Turkey before returning to finish his career at Leicester.
He managed four goals but his strangest moment saw him go face to face with a goat being sacrificed.
"We travelled to the ground on the team coach and stopped outside our stadium for a goat to be sacrificed before the game," Vassell wrote. "I felt like the goat looked at me just before it was the point in time when I realised that I was most definitely an animal lover.
"I know I’m being dramatic but I’ve seen a lot from the seat of a coach during the years but this was certainly new. Some players then smeared the blood on their boots and head for good luck."
The Road to Persia has been written and self published by Darius Vassell Inama Enterprise Ltd and can be bought here