It has been a lot of work, but Dries Mertens finally signed a contract for one season, with option, at Galatasaray yesterday.
After 10 years at Naples, the Red Devil is now embarking on an adventure in football-crazed Istanbul. Although Mertens also had the chance to simply stay in the Italian league.
Talks about a contract extension with Napoli yielded nothing, but the Red Devil also had an alternative, says Erden Timur, vice-chairman of Galatasaray.
“He had an official offer of 5 million euros from Juventus,” said Timur. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
“There are many reasons why he chose us. There is rivalry between Napoli and Juventus. The player who scored the most goals in the history of the club and surpassed Maradona did not want to end his career at Juventus.”
“Mertens has waited 6 days for us. He had offers from a lot of big clubs in Europe, but we were able to convince him.”
“How? We tell the players that we want to become European champions again. We are not playing European now, but that is the goal in the medium term.”
