Talent calendar
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Mustafa Hekimoğlu, who made the leap from Besiktas JK’s youth ranks to the first team, is considered one of the greatest talents in Turkish football. After players like Rıdvan Yılmaz, Emirhan İlkhan, Serdar Saatçı and Semih Kılıçsoy, Besiktas shows with Hekimoğlu that it has great potential from its own ranks. The 17-year-old is already expected to fill the gap in the Turkish national team left by Burak Yılmaz when he retires in 2023.
Hekimoğlu made his first major appearance in the Super Cup final at the beginning of August: in this game, in which Besiktas defeated Galatasaray 5-0, the young attacker prevailed against Kaan Ayhan and pushed the ball past Fernando Muslera into the net for the final score. Only a few minutes earlier he had come into the game for Ciro Immobile. As a result, Hekimoğlu should get more chances in the first half of the season.
However, this was made more difficult by Besiktas’ poor performances on the national and international stage. They are in 28th place in the Europa League and the 16-time champions are only sixth in the league. This is one of the reasons why Hekimoğlu, who has only amassed 231 minutes this season, is only third choice. There are well-known competitors in front of him: Immobile and Kılıçsoy. Nevertheless, quite a few people in Turkey look to the 17-year-old center forward with great expectations.
Hekimoğlu has already appeared as a goalscorer in Türkiye’s youth national teams. He has been playing for the U21 team since September, scoring once in three appearances. He has proven his qualities as a center forward, but is flexible and can play on both the left and right wing. Despite his young age, he has a good physique and can hold his own in duels. In addition, his ball control, his ball control and his accuracy are among his greatest strengths.
Hekimoğlu: Role model Lewandowski and goal Real Madrid
Hekimoğlu still has work to do in terms of understanding the game and positioning. In addition, he cannot exploit his physical strengths against Süper Lig defenders as well as he could at youth level, so he also has to work on his pace and agility. “Mustafa Hekimoğlu is definitely a talented player. He has very good qualities, but he has not yet reached the level that many fans and experts would like to see,” said Gökhan Yağmur, Area Manager Turkey at Transfermarkt.
During the Süper Lig market value update on Monday, Hekimoğlu’s market value rose by 500,000 to 2.5 million euros. How quickly he moves up will depend on how much playing time he gets at Besiktas and how quickly he can improve. In October, the “Guardian” named him one of the 60 greatest talents of the 2007 class. Teams from the Premier League and Ligue 1 are said to have Hekimoğlu on their list.
Hekimoğlu first drew attention to himself on the international stage in September 2024. In the duel with Ajax Amsterdam, the then Besiktas coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst brought him in from the start. At 17 years and 157 days, he was the youngest footballer to start a Europa League game for Besiktas. However, Besiktas lost 4-0 away to Ajax. Speaking to Playspor afterwards, Hekimoğlu said: “I will never forget the away game at Ajax. It was an exciting and beautiful game, but it was a bad result. We felt sorry for him, but for me it was a good experience.”
Van Bronckhorst, who has been out of office since the end of November, was considered a great supporter of Hekimoğlu: “I am satisfied with Mustafa’s performance. He is a player who impresses me despite his young age. Such young players will get their time when they deserve it. He will get better if he works with good players in training.”
Hekimoğlu himself is happy that he has a teammate in Immobile from whom he can learn a lot. “Sometimes we practice shooting on goal. I try to imitate what he does in training.” Like many young footballers, he looks up to Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé and Cristiano Ronaldo, but his role model is an ex-Bundesliga striker. “I like Haaland because he is a physical, fast striker, but Robert Lewandowski is my idol.” He has already set a career goal: “Real Madrid has been my dream since I was little. I would like to wear a Real Madrid shirt because of Ronaldo.”
Every day from December 1st to 24th, Transfermarkt will present a talent from the 2007 or 2008 vintage from a different country. Sponsors, data scouts and users act as experts and report interesting facts about 24 young players in our talent calendar who you should keep a close eye on in the future. For example with the TM Watchlist.