At Türkgücü Munich it’s always a matter of expectations. For a good year, the team from the east of Munich played in the third football league, so it was also formally one of the professional teams in the country. But then the construct of the investor and then President Hasan Kivran collapsed because one thing was even bigger than the chunk of money he had invested: Kivran’s expectations. The insolvency proceedings of the GmbH, which has since been liquidated, are still ongoing.
The past regional league season was a year of consolidation, in which the team briefly fell into the relegation loop of the Bavarian regional league, but now expectations are likely to rise again: Türkgücü has found another financier in addition to the busy businessman and president Taskin Akkay, former Croatia international Milan Rapaic, 49. The former midfielder not only played for Fenerbahce for two years, which has made him popular in Turkey, according to Türkgücü; On submission by Niko Kovac, he scored the 2-1 winner against Italy in a preliminary round match at the 2002 World Cup (76th). There are also a dozen Champions League games with Hajduk Split in the mid-1990s.
Rapaic’s son Boris will become a member of the Türkgücü board in the future. However, the former professional lives in Croatia himself. When asked, Türkgücü President Taskin Akkay explains that they met “through mutual acquaintances” – he does not name a deeper reason for the motivation of a foreign investor to join a fourth division club. “We had good talks for months, I am convinced that we will make good use of Türkgücü Munich’s potential in the long term,” Rapaic is quoted as saying in a press release.
Anyway: in the long term. So, at least on paper, it doesn’t have to be that fast. The entry of the investor quickly opened up new opportunities. In goalkeeper Sebastian Kolbe and attacker Stefan Maderer, there are at least two players with experience in the third division who will play against their former club, SpVgg Bayreuth, in the coming season (starting on July 20).
Two prominent departures have not yet been made public by the club
Coach Alper Kayabunar wants to keep expectations as low as possible. “Last season we didn’t even know a week or two before the start whether we could compete,” recalls the 37-year-old, and at the end of the season “a lot went wrong”. So: better “stay humble”. Especially since two prominent departures from the club have not yet been made public: Marco Holz, 33, is no longer part of the Türkgücü squad – Holz is currently recovering from an injury. And defender Michael Zant will no longer play for Türkgücü.
These decisions were not made for sporting reasons, at least those of Zant may also have another, internal reason. According to SZ information, before Milan Rapaic joined, it was planned to expand the cooperation with board member Nico Held. Akkay explains that there were “one-sided ideas” about Held that “couldn’t be fulfilled”. Possibly Held as a donor had demanded more influence. It can be heard from those close to Türkgücü that the deal was canceled at short notice when Rapaic came into play; However, Akkay denies this.
The president explains that Held will soon be stepping down from the board, but will remain on board as a sponsor for the coming season. Both Holz and Zant work for Held, who runs a consulting firm based near Reutlingen. In any case, from those close to Türkgücü it can be heard that at least Zant would almost certainly still play for the club if Held had stepped in more strongly.
“Marco is probably not replaceable for us,” says coach Kayabunar about veteran Holz with 206 games in the third division alone. But: “Apart from him, we were able to keep all the leading players.” He thinks that the squad as a whole is even a little stronger than last season. The long-time employee, official and coach Kayabunar was also the one who shouldered most of the construction work in the aftermath of the bankruptcy and relegation to keep the team alive, which he did.
The fact that President Akkay is also talking about “long-term cooperation” with the new investor in this context should be reassuring. For him, too, it’s only about staying in the league, because the infrastructure has still not improved for the club – the team still trains at the district sports facility on Heinrich-Wieland-Straße, and there is still no fixed stadium home . In the coming season, which starts with a home game against FC Augsburg for the team in a week on Saturday, Türkgücü will be allowed to play a maximum of twelve games at the Grünwalder Stadium and at least five at the SV Heimstetten facility.
