Higher budget despite debt
On the Süper Lig’s deadline day, Galatasaray underlined its ambitions to become number one in Turkish football again after the weakest performance in the club’s history with a five-pack transfer involving Mauro Icardi (28). In order for this to succeed, the “lions” have spared no effort and certainly no expense this summer. The money was put into well-known professionals called Icardi, Juan Mata (34) or Dries Mertens (35) and would have been unimaginable at Galatasaray a few years ago. How the commitments for the indebted club were possible? Transfermarkt looks at the reasons.
One face of the turnaround is the old and new President Dursun Özbek. The 73-year-old, who served as club boss between 2015 and 2018, was re-elected by club members in mid-June and made it unmistakably clear that there can only be one way for Galatasaray – up. “We have no intention of making our team worse. So why should I sell the best players? After all, we want to put together a team that can win the title again next season, the anniversary year of our republic,” emphasized Özbek shortly after his election victory.
The President ensured restructuring in important positions, installed two personalities with stable smell with coach Okan Buruk and the director of professional football Cenk Ergün. In addition, with Erden Timur, a board member was brought in who was to play an important role. According to Forbes, the 40-year-old is one of the 100 richest people in Turkey, and his fortune is estimated at $400 million. Years ago he signaled his willingness to provide support: “Should Galatasaray need financial help with further transfers, we will be at their side. We have communicated this to the Management Board.”
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Sinan Yener, editor at Transfermarkt Turkey, says: “Before the presidential election in June, it was Timur who gave a speech that made the fans decide in favor of Özbek. He had dampened expectations and at the same time called for patience. Nevertheless, he conveyed the feeling that the successful times from earlier days should be reached again. After the election, he was primarily responsible for transfer matters. He does a good job of persuading and negotiates well.” While 14 players came with a market value of EUR 131.1 million, 33 players with a total value of EUR 75 million left the club.
Among them, only Marcão (26) lost to FC Sevilla as the undisputed top performer. On the signings side, the list of well-known players grew longer from week to week, culminating in a bulk purchase on the final transfer day. Mertens, Sérgio Oliveira (30) and Lucas Torreira (26) were previously signed, but Mata, Milot Rashica (26), Mathias Ross (21) and Yusuf Demir (19) joined Icardi on Deadline Day. The latter shares the status of this summer’s most expensive signing with Torreira. Cost point: 6 million euros.
Spending of 31.5 million euros is the top figure in the league, but it was almost reached by neighboring Fenerbahce. On the other hand, the difference becomes clearer when it comes to the balance, where Galatasaray shows by far the largest minus of all clubs with -18.5 million euros. Where the actually indebted Galatasaray got the money for the additions is a question “that everyone asks,” says Lara Karacan, Content Lead at Transfermarkt.
A Video in the social networks shows Ali Koc, President of Fenerbahce, who addressed the same question directly to Timur with a wink at an event – who avoided an answer with a smile. Meanwhile, the Turkish association TFF played its part in ensuring that not only the “Lions” but also the other clubs were able to strengthen their squads. The budget limits have been raised for the new season. Galatasaray went from 55 million to almost 85 million euros – the highest among all Turkish clubs. It is important here that it is not a matter of transfer budgets, but of the entire budget, which is also used to finance the players’ salaries.
“It’s the right step for the Süper Lig to bring back the caliber à la Sneijder and Drogba in order to bring the quality to a certain level. With the league not doing well in Europe, something needs to change. The league is not competitive,” emphasizes Karacan. Only around two months after the new budget was announced, Galatasaray reported a loss of around 20 million euros for the past financial year, which means that debt rose to around 228 million euros. Despite these numbers, “the positive mood” currently predominates in the Turkish media, says Karacan.
Gala on 3rd place
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The expert does not see Galatasaray as the number one contender for the league title after the transfer summer: “If you look closely at the transfers, Icardi is the only real exclamation mark. It has to be said that Trabzonspor, Besiktas and Fenerbahce have also done well.” After the first five games, the “Lions” are seventh with ten points – Fenerbahce have the same result in third place.
For coach Buruk it is now a matter of forming a unit from the squad that has been bought together. There is one problem: Due to the foreigner regulation, no more than eight legionnaires are allowed to be on the pitch at the same time. There are 16 foreigners in the current squad, of which at least Demir and Ross do not fall under the regulation as U21 players. The first game after Deadline Day is the duel on Sunday (7 p.m.) against neighboring Kasimpasa. Buruk said back in June that Galatasaray’s goals would never change. “We will eliminate last year’s misfortune,” he emphasized. Players like Mata, who hardly played for Man United, Icardi, for whom Gala is more than two steps behind and Mertens, whose football pension is getting closer – before that there are still 2.9 million euros net for one Season. At least on paper, Galatasaray is probably the strongest team since the last championship in 2018/19.
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