For example this year, Galatasaray’s Ozan Kabak was transferred to Stuttgart, Germany, for 12 million euros. Don’t forget we are also exporting players trained by locals. We should pay more attention to the infrastructure like training local players. “I'm not against increasing the number of foreign players. Sports writer Lutfi Ozel has a different view. We see that the foreigners on our teams are not doing well in European cup games. Remember, when Galatasaray won the Europe Cup, most of its players were Turks.” He was referring to the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) Super Cup. Sinan Akman, who was a dedicated Galatasaray fan, told Al-Monitor, “If I wanted to watch foreign soccer, I would go and watch the best foreign teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United. In Turkish soccer leagues, the national anthem is played before the games, but when the foreigners don’t know Turkish, it's left to the spectators to carry the song. Foreigners play and Turks watch, yet it's called the “national league.” Many teams, led by Galatasaray, take the field with 11 of their 14 foreigners. It has 13 foreign players and it frequently shuffles them around, buying and then selling them off as they disappoint. This keeps the club in news headlines.Įven Akhisarspor, which made amazing strides as a small-town team and was promoted to the Super League, now has 13 foreign players. Third place Besiktas has 12.įenerbahce, one of the big three clubs and certainly the most popular, this year is performing miserably and sits at the bottom of league standings. 2 in the standings, also has 14 foreign players. Medipol Basaksehir, the team that now leads the Super League, has taken advantage of the rule, with 14 foreign players in its total roster of 28. The game is played with 11 athletes on the field.
Smaller teams of 11 players are allowed to fill their rosters completely with foreigners. With the booming number of player imports, it is sometimes hard to see a native player in Turkey’s Super Cup soccer league. How did this come about? The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) in January 2015 decided to allow as many as 14 foreign players on each soccer team with a roster of 28 players. In the past four years, soccer has joined the list. But these days, you can see foreign influence everywhere - in imports of fruits, vegetables, meat and even hay for cattle. Turks love to boast about locally made products.