TM expert classifies
©Fenerbahçe
Domenico Tedesco probably rarely had a shorter route to work. For the first few weeks after taking office at Fenerbahce, the 40-year-old spent the night in the traditional Turkish club’s training center. He now lives in a hotel and there simply hasn’t been time to look for permanent accommodation. The former Schalke and Leipzig Bundesliga coach also had a turbulent start in Istanbul – and not even from a sporting perspective.
His new club has “incredible power” and “fantastic fans,” Tedesco told the “German Press Agency.” The Europa League game against VfB Stuttgart on Thursday (6:45 p.m./RTL+) is his ninth game as Fenerbahce coach – and of course a special one. “I come from the region and the club gave me the chance to gain a foothold as a coach in the youth sector,” said Tedesco, who was born in Italy but grew up in Esslingen, before the duel with VfB, who have won five of their last six games in all competitions and are traveling confidently after the 3-0 win at VfL Wolfsburg.
Unrest at Fenerbahce since the start of the season
In terms of sport, things have also been going well for Tedesco on the Bosphorus so far. He is still unbeaten in the Süper Lig with the 19-time champions. And yet things have been a bit wild at times since he joined Fenerbahce at the beginning of September. As soon as Tedesco arrived, there was a change of power in the club. Sadettin Saran surprisingly replaced long-standing President Ali Koç. It is not uncommon for such a scenario in Turkey to have further personnel consequences and this was initially indicated by Tedesco and sports director Devin Özek, previously assistant to Simon Rolfes at Bayer Leverkusen. So far, however, both have been spared consequences.
However, the question arises as to how long it will take until the discussions pick up speed again or whether Tedesco will be able to successfully counteract this. Cem Atakara, Content Manager Turkey at Transfermarkt, says: “The team hasn’t lost a game in the Süper Lig yet, but with five wins from nine games they are only in third place and six points behind arch-rivals Galatasaray. Nobody really has any hope of becoming champions again in 2026 after a twelve-year wait.”
And the Fenerbahce fans had hoped for nothing less than this championship from Tedesco, who succeeded José Mourinho, who was dismissed early after missing the Champions League qualification. However, “only a few attribute the current situation to Tedesco,” explains the TM expert. “Because the team was built by Mourinho and two weeks after Tedesco, a new president, Saran, came in.”
But it cannot be denied that the 2022 DFB Cup winner has not yet found the decisive answers on the field: “He is constantly trying out new things and looking for solutions.” Further unrest was recently caused by the decision to exclude long-standing Turkish national players İrfan Can Kahveci (30) and Cenk Tosun (34) from the squad. “Due to all these circumstances, one cannot hope that Tedesco’s tenure at Fenerbahce will last for a long time.”
Tedesco: Pressure at clubs like Fenerbahce “completely normal”
Tedesco himself also knows: “Of course there is pressure here. But when you work for such a big club, it’s completely normal. You have to be able to deal with it.” He is calm about the fact that the euphoria among fans and the media often turns into hysteria. “I like it when there are big emotions. That shows that people don’t care about the club, that they are rooting for it.” Things should be no different in the duel with the Swabians in the dreaded Şükrü Saraçoğlu cauldron, which holds around 50,000 spectators, on Thursday.