While the second leg between LOSC and Milan will be played this Thursday evening (6:55 p.m.), the people of Lille still remember the first leg with the success acquired all by itself by Yusuf Yazici, the LOSC attacking midfielder.
The Turk thus offered himself a second hat-trick after that achieved two weeks earlier against Sparta Prague.
The top scorer in the Europa League (six goals to his counter) also confirms in Ligue 1, author of a double and an assist on Sunday against Lorient (4-0) despite a playing time still limited there is less of a month.
At a press conference, Galtier was full of praise for his little nugget: “Yusuf has a different profile from all the other players on the team.
He brings something different to the game: his strike, his clairvoyance and his left foot ”.
Yazici offers himself the hat-trick with a sublime left roll.
It's fluid and it looks terribly easy for the Lille native
To note, the great job of Jonathan David with the pass of 'pic.twitter.com/NgJlYACu7T
- RMC Sport (@RMCsport) November 5, 2020
A real star in Trabzon
Launched at 18 in the Turkish 1st division, the Turk was followed by Lille and his sporting director Luis Campos for more than three years.
But its history with the northern club dates much longer.
"Lille came to play a match in Trabzon in September 2011 (1-1), I was a ball picker that evening," revealed the Turkish international on his arrival in the North.
At 23, Yusuf Yazici decides to take the big step and leaves his club of heart, his family, his friends at Trabzonspor, for the LOSC.
True rockstar in Trabzon with his teammate Abdulkadir Omur, the player has yet received a big offer of extension from his club, but his choice is made, he wants to join his compatriot Mehmet Zeki Celik and the North.
Two days before his landing at Lille-Lesquin airport, his trainer Christophe Galtier even announces that “the replacement for Pepe (former top scorer in Lille) should arrive at the start of the week”.
It is an understatement to say that Losc fans are impatient to see the third most expensive transfer in the club's history - 16.5 million euros (M €) - after that of Portuguese Renato. Sanches (20m from Bayern Munich) - and Jonathan David (27m from Gantoise).
Aware of the expectations, the native of Trabzon assumes his cost of the transfer.
"I will do my best to justify it, just to give the club back the change of its coin."
"It's like taking the toy away from a child"
Yusuf Yazici, after his injury.
With his daily good humor and his practice of French improving day by day, his adaptation is very fast and facilitated by his compatriot Zeki Celik, whom he has been working with in youth teams since he was 11 years old.
“We exchanged a lot and he played a real role in my arrival,” said Yusuf.
He speaks French better and better, he also understands it and can exchange with his teammates in the language of Shakespeare which he masters better and better.
But on December 21, 2019, the career of the Turkish player takes another turn.
The LOSC is atomized by Monaco (5-1) and above all loses its prodigy in a harmless duel.
Severely affected in the knee, the verdict falls: rupture of the cruciate ligaments of the right knee.
For the first time in his career, this tennis and Formula 1 enthusiast will have to wait months and months before he can do what he loves, playing football.
“It's like taking the toy away from a child,” he said.
He then decides to go to Rome and undergoes the operation by the very famous Dr Pierpolo Mariani, who had treated in particular Memphis Depay, Francesco Totti.
Then, return to Turkey to Antalya for his convalescence and will live in confinement near his family.
How not to forget what he went through this year ...
Today top scorer of the @ EuropaLeague, Yusuf Yazici comes back from afar, with an impressive strength of character
Find the full report: https://t.co /PlRGZpBj5Epic.twitter.com/2P7YuQZJsk
- LOSC (@losclive) November 25, 2020
A nice check for the Mastiffs on the horizon
His explosion under the leadership of Ersun Yanal (current coach of Antalyaspor, Editor's note) had made him a promising and versatile player for Turkish football.
In Trabzon, Yazici could play both as a number 8 but his favorite position remains just behind the striker as a 10 or 9.5 like his position in the Europa League this season.
Being at the start, on the right side in a 4-4-2 under the Lille colors, Yusuf can not win but placed at his usual position, the Turk explodes everything this season.
With his excellent results and his current state of form, the player has become a source of envy on the European scene.
In the viewfinder especially of Arsenal, Yazici could bring big, very big to the Lille club.
“It's really an honor that big clubs are interested in Yusuf.
When Yusuf will have reached his true potential, Lille will want to sell him to very good clubs for a very good price, and that does not seem so far away ”confides Adem Cecebi, his agent at DHA.
If her foal continues to walk on water as it does now, her prediction seems more than feasible ...
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Europa League 2020/2021 standings