The warm reception at the airport was already a solid foretaste. Dries Mertens will be absorbed by the football mad Istanbul at Galatasaray, where he signed for 1 year with an option for an extra season. Mertens will receive 4 million euros net (2.9 million euros salary + 1.1 million euros drawing fee). What awaits him (extra-)sporty in his new home port?
Ask Didier Drogba, Wesley Sneijder, Radamel Falcao…
Wearing the Galatasaray shirt leaves an eternal impression in a football career. The fans of the Turkish top club can invariably be found in lists of the most fanatical supporters.
The Belgian-Turkish trainer Fuat Capa can only confirm. With Kasimpasa and Antalyaspor, among others, he looked Galatasaray in the eye several times.
“Dries Mertens ends up in a club with a great history,” says Capa, who sees two reasons for the enormous popularity of the superpower.
“It is the only Turkish club to have won European trophies. In 2000 they won the UEFA Cup against Arsenal, then also the European Super Cup by beating Real Madrid.”
“In addition, Galatasaray also laid the building blocks for the national team during that period, which was successful at European and World Cups.”
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Galatasaray’s appeal would never wane, despite the lack of great success in recent years.
For the last title we have to go back to 2019, last season a low followed with the worst final classification ever (13th) since the creation of the Süper Lig.
“Since missing out on the title in 2020, the then board opted for a new course: a new team with young players, in which a lot of money was invested,” Capa says. “That failed and that meant the end for the then chairman and trainer, Fatih Terim, a true club icon.”
“The new board must initiate the turnaround and that is why it took big names such as Dries Mertens. He can mean a lot for Galatasaray, but also for Turkish football as a model professional.”
“In addition, the many foreign signings such as Seferovic, Torreira, Oliveira and Midtsjo will make it easier for him to perform at a high level collectively. And with his purposefulness there is no doubt: Mertens will become the new hero of Galatasaray”
Next season promises to be a tough battle for the title.
Capa warns: “Mertens will encounter a completely different kind of football in Turkey, where the individual stands out above the collective. It will therefore be a tough battle with defending champion Trabzonspor, but also great rival Fenerbahce. Besiktas and Basaksehir will also stir. .”
Biggest fan base in football crazy country
Mertens therefore faces the exciting challenge of letting Galatasaray relive the old successes. If he succeeds, he will be eternally famous with the fans.
The images of his reception at the airport were already impressive. But when Mertens really explodes at his new club, many crazier scenes await him. In home port Nef Stadyumu, but certainly also in the streets of Istanbul.
Celebs who preceded Mertens all said it was impossible to interfere in normal public life. For a dinner with wife and child, the Red Devil should not choose a terrace in İstiklâl Caddesi – one of the busiest streets.
“It will be adapted for Dries”, says Capa. “He will lose more time and energy with fans accosting him in the street for photos and autographs than playing football itself. But they will also show it when things go bad.”
So Mertens knows what he has to do…
