Kyle Walker to Burnley. Rio Ferdinand to Queens Park Rangers. We don’t need to give you any more examples. We know you know the meme: slideshows of Euro 2020’s biggest stars in big old 2026, donning their new club’s Castore kits, smiles on their faces but the glint all but extinguished from their eyes.
Mohamed Salah in a Trabzonpor shirt felt the most jarring this summer, let’s be honest – a little bit like stroking a dog backwards. He still, surely, had something to give at the very top level. FourFourTwo’s Kedar Bayley was just as confused, calling it “farcical and rage-inducing” that after claiming he still wanted to compete, Salah at wound up in Istanbul and not even at one of the city’s bigger clubs.
It’s not quite as simple as to call this a retirement league. Granted, a few of these players have turned 30 – but even the most cynical online troll wouldn’t tar them all them with the “washed” brush. More and more talent is turning to Turkish shores, and not just for dental or follicular reasons. The Super Lig has seemingly replaced the Saudi Pro League as the go-to destination for a very particular transfer in football: the high-wage, late-20s-to-early-30s talent who Serie A can’t afford.
To put it into context, N’Golo Kante moved from Saudi to Fenerbahce this summer. The beloved box-to-boxer was one of the Pro League’s jewels when it started its influx a few years ago, with Sadio Mane, Karim Benzema, Ruben Neves and, of course, Cristiano Ronaldo all flocking to the Gulf State. Gabriel Martinelli – another player more than good enough to play at a high level in Europe, and Arsenal’s top scorer in cup competitions last season – has consistently been linked with Saudi. Now, he’s linked with Galatasaray.
It used to be that if you moved to Saudi Arabia, everyone assumed you were doing it for the money – but it was OK, because you could talk about the ambition of the league and the end-goal, to make Saudi football-mad (something that almost certainly won’t happen until after 2034, when they’ve hosted the World Cup and you’ve long-retired, collected your pay package and sodded off to start Atletico Boise in the MLS).
Whereas if you moved to the Super Lig in the last five to 10 years, the perception was different. It was assumed it was because you weren’t quite wanted in Saudi for whatever reason, but you perhaps wanted the comfort and salary that comes with the league. See Osimhen’s ugly Napoli break-up. See Jhon Duran and whatever on earth happened there.
Things have changed. The Pro League’s marquee summer signing, at the time of writing, is Crysensio Summerville. A good player, of course: while Turkish teams continue to be linked with top-level talent, including wonderkids Ethan Nwaneri and Rodrigo Mora. It’s quite the turn of events.
Critics have been quick to point to a bubble bursting in Saudi. That feels rather simplistic, however: it was always going to be unsustainable to sign another Ronaldo, Benzema or Kante every season until the Pro League eclipsed Europe’s top five leagues. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) has pulled back on several global sports initiatives as they refocus on domestic Saudi projects – including a reported retrenchment from financing LIV Golf – while Newcastle United fans have been left wondering just how much of a priority the Toon are among the nation’s ambitions. As friend of FourFourTwo Adam Clery recently alluded to on The Overlap Fan Debate, however, perhaps Saudi Arabia simply wanted a seat at the table in European football. Solange and not Beyonce; to compete in, not to conquer, the beautiful game.
Turkiye offers a few things that Saudi can’t, though. They’re not building a top league from the very foundations.
While the Turkish national team only returned to the World Cup for the first time in 24 years over the summer, the country is far more established in the game. They’ve consistently produced talent over the past three decades and currently have two of the more exciting youngsters in Europe, in Arda Guler and Kenan Yildiz.
There’s an established hierarchy and clear identity, too. Gala and Fener are renowned rivalries, Besiktas regulars at the very top of the sport, too. Trabzonspor and Istanbul Basaksehir are intent on upsetting the status quo – so it’s not a one-team league or duopoly, where if you’re not playing for the elite side in the division, you’re a no one.
And there’s a football culture there that Saudi Arabia haven’t yet fostered: picture Turkish football and you’ll envision the cliches of tifos referencing the underworld, flares and so much smoke you can barely see the names on shirts. There may well be Al-Nassr diehards who very grateful to CR7 for putting their club on the map and winning the league title – but if you do well in the Super Lig, you’re essentially a god.
Yet all of this misses the obvious answer – the one good reason for Turkish football to be a little more set up for a Salah or a Mane than Saudi ever was – which became very clear when Galatasaray beat Liverpool almost a year ago with the likes of Sane, Osimhen and Singo in tow, while Lucas Torreira, Ilkay Gundogan and Mario Lemina made up a midfield that 2019 would have been proud of. There’s the allure of the European football.
No Turkish side has progressed past the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Just as we all wondered whether the Saudi Pro League would start genuinely competing for European eyeballs, it’s always a tentative statement to claim, “hey things could genuinely change,” just because these clubs can afford Romelu Lukaku and Vlahovic. But we could have two Super Lig sides among the elite: Galatasaray are in Pot 3 for the Champions League, with Fenerbahce up against Lyon in the qualifiers – and with just eight teams of 36 out in the league phase, European knockouts have never been more attainable.
Galatasaray’s 2000 UEFA Cup win, meanwhile, remains the blueprint for all modern Turkish clubs. Salah’s Trabzonspor and Trossard’s Besiktas are in the Europa League qualifiers, with Basaksehir in the Conference League – knowing that the final of that particular competition is in Istanbul next year. UEFA tournaments are more competitive than ever, now that Sevilla don’t drop into the Europa League and sweep up. With the greatest of respect to them, West Ham United and Crystal Palace have won European trophies in recent seasons: there’s no reason a Turkish team can’t go deep into those competitions.
None of this is new. Roberto Carlos and Guti were early purveyors of the league, before Wesley Sneijder, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka moved to Istanbul; Robin Van Persie and Mesut Ozil had stints, too. Leagues aren’t necessarily bubbles, but balloons, inflating with talent before the inevitable sigh, when big players leave and bigger players don’t replace them. Hate to tell you, but the Premier League won’t be king forever, and one day we’ll be having tricky conversations about where all the good players went.
Turkish football isn’t suddenly set to rival English football but there’s enough behind it to suggest that it’s sustainable enough for the talent it’s attracting. Maybe it’s time to start seeing it as a viable destination for players with plenty of ambition left in the tank, after all.