TURAN EYES REDEMPTION AS HE HEADS TO IBROX WITH GALATASARAY –
His rapid rise sealed dream move to Barca but firing a gun in a hospital saw the career of Turan spiral out of control... now he eyes redemption
THE strains of Zadok
The Priest by Handel will be absent at an empty Ibrox tomorrow night as Rangers prepare to kick off against Galatasaray.
But Steven Gerrard is adamant that the Turkish giant standing in his club’s way of a third successive season of Europa League group stage football is every inch a Champions League side.
The star quality in the visiting ranks is apparent in the form of ex-Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea and Monaco striker Radamel Falcao and Gerrard’s ex-Liverpool team-mate Ryan Babel.
Yet none of Galatasaray’s biggest names can boast as colourful a backstory as the thrilling ascent and dizzyingly rapid decline of Arda Turan, who as a Barcelona star rubbed shoulders with the greatest players on the planet but whose shocking off-the-field exploits would see him flirt with a lengthy prison sentence.
First, though, came his rise. Handed his debut for Galatasaray in 2004-05 by none other than Gheorghe Hagi — the legendary famous father of current Rangers midfielder Ianis — the gifted attacking midfielder went on to captain the club and wore Hagi’s No 10 jersey with distinction, winning the Super Lig in 2008.
On the international stage, Turan shone with Turkey as Fatih
Terim’s side finished third at Euro 2008, scoring a last-minute winner in the group stage that eliminated co-hosts Switzerland.
Signed by Atletico Madrid in 2011, his upward trajectory continued as he won the Europa League in his first season in the Spanish capital.
Remarkably, Atletico would go on to break the Barcelona and Real Madrid duopoly — and the stranglehold Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo held over Spanish football — when Diego Simeone’s men won La Liga in 2014.
Signed by Barcelona for £37million in 2015 to strengthen a team boasting Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar that had just beaten Juventus 3-1 in the Champions League final in Berlin, another level of superstardom beckoned for a man rated as arguably the finest Turkish player of all time.
And, after having to wait six months to make his debut due to Barcelona being under a transfer ban, Turan initially enjoyed life at the Nou Camp for his first two seasons.
But it all started to go horribly wrong when Ernesto Valverde replaced Luis Enrique as manager in 2017 and he fell out of favour. ‘He (Valverde) did not give me a minute to show myself,’ explained Turan earlier this year. ‘I asked why I was not playing. He gave me a political answer. The most important thing is to feel valued. I do not want to be inside an organisation that feels I am not important to them.’ That same year he called time on an international career that had gleaned 94 caps after swinging punches on a flight home from a friendly in Macedonia at a journalist whom he claimed had insulted him at Euro 2016.
‘It was something that should not have happened on the national team plane,’ said Turan at the time. ‘Do I regret it? No.’
In January 2018, his lack of a future at Barcelona was spelled out to him in no uncertain terms when he was sent to Turkish side Istanbul Basaksehir.
The length of the loan? Twoand-a-half-years, which took him up to the expiration of his contract at the Nou Camp.
Back in his homeland, life turned dark for the frustrated Turan when he was banned for 16 matches — later reduced to ten on appeal — for pushing an assistant referee during a Super Lig match with Sivasspor.
But worse, far worse, was to follow as his career began to unravel at breakneck speed.
While still serving his ban, a nightclub bust-up with Turkish singer Berkay Sahin in October 2018, after Turan had allegedly made suggestive remarks to his wife, Ozlem Ada Sahin, ended with the pop star nursing a broken nose and requiring surgery.
Turan then allegedly showed up at the hospital with a gun, asking for forgiveness, and ended up firing a shot into the ground, causing panic.
Facing up to 12 years in prison, he received a suspended jail sentence of two years and eight months after being found guilty of firing a gun to cause panic, illegal possession of weapons and intentional injury.
‘(I have) made a lot of mistakes. I have faced what I needed to face,’ he said recently of his crime and punishment.
Basaksehir duly terminated his loan deal after his sentencing. Barcelona spoke to his agent, but not Turan personally, and agreed to pay the last six months of his deal for him to play basketball and watch television in Istanbul.
The most important thing for me is to feel valued by a club
‘Galatasaray is the only club who I would join without conditions,’ he said in March as he pondered his next move.
‘I’ll probably continue playing at a foreign club next season, a club outside of Turkey, but if Galatasaray call me, I’ll be delighted to help.’
However, with Galatasaray openly wary of the baggage that comes with Turan, he faced an uncertain future.
But then in August, the 33-year-old was handed the second chance he craved at his first club, with chairman Mustafa Cengiz declaring: ‘We have no personal problems with Arda. People make mistakes.’
‘Emotions are very deep,’ said Turan after penning a two-year deal. ‘But now is not the time to comment and talk too much. It’s time for me to get on the field and fight. ‘I hope everything will be good with the most beautiful days, successful days again both in Turkey and in Europe.’ After the remarkable rise and fall of Arda Turan, he is now aiming to pen a happier chapter in a career crammed full of incident and intrigue. Rangers will be desperate to ensure an unhappy ending to his dream of delivering Europa League play-off round progression to the 2000 UEFA Cup winners.