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Mesut Özil: Moved from Arsenal to Turkey in the winter
Photo:
KENAN ASYALI / AFP
Tarkan Tevetoglu, Tarkan for short, is one of the greatest pop stars in Turkish history.
The fame of the musician, who was born in Alzey in Rhineland-Hesse, extends far beyond the country's borders.
He achieved his absolute breakthrough with »Kuzu Kuzu
«
.
To date there has not been a single that has sold better in Turkey.
The people not only sang "Kuzu Kuzu
"
, they live the song. The word doubling established itself in Turkish usage, the free translation for "Kuzu Kuzu
"
is "like a sheep". So if you want to express that someone is slightly submissive, you say: "He will do it kuzu kuzu." Just like a lamb.
Nihat Özdemir, 71, recently also used the words when it came to whether the Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea FC will take place in Istanbul as planned.
"You will come kuzu kuzu," said Ozdemir.
At this point at the latest, it was clear to every football fan in Turkey that Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel would fight for the title elsewhere, but not in Istanbul.
And that's how it happened: The final will now take place in Porto.
Pandemic reasons.
Özdemir is a well-known builder, but he achieved great fame among the general public as a board member of Fenerbahçe.
In 2019 he was elected almost unanimously as President of the Turkish Football Association.
Started with large projects, Özdemir gradually made a faux pas.
Grand announcements blow in the wind.
It was going to be a very busy season
Here is an example: When the 2019/2020 season ended prematurely due to the corona pandemic, the relegated team demanded that the league remain.
"That is out of the question," said Özdemir at the time.
Two weeks after the end of the season, the association announced that there would be no relegated teams in the league and that the new season would start with the newcomers with 21 teams.
So the schedule has become full and the players are now at the end of their tether.
Although the league has many teams that are technically and tactically at a very good level and also well-trained coaches, they still lag behind in international comparison.
Boxing through a league under these circumstances because the EM is coming up?
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League leaders Besiktas have lost twice recently - and the season finale was exciting again
Photo: SEDAT SUNA / EPA
Actually an incredible undertaking, especially since the Turkish clubs couldn't get Corona under control either.
Newcomer Hatayspor had 17 corona cases at the same time.
Other clubs up to eight.
There were clubs that held barbecues with families, friends and the players on their club premises during the season.
It is astonishing that under these circumstances perhaps the most exciting season in league history came about.
On the last day of the season, the Istanbul clubs Besiktas and Galatasaray are tied in first and second place.
There is also a tie in the direct comparison, which counts in the case of a tie in the Süper Lig.
Only two goals separate the two teams.
The third top Istanbul club, Fenerbahçe, is two points behind them.
The three top clubs have never been so close at night.
But the omens are different before the final showdown on Saturday evening (7.30 p.m.) when Besiktas (in Göztepe), Galatasaray (against Yeni Malatyaspor) and Fenerbahçe (at Kayserispor) play their last games at the same time.
Özil is looking for himself
With two dozen transfers, Fenerbahçe prepared for the title fight before and during the season.
The club has been waiting for a league championship since 2014.
For the self-image of a club that defines success only through championship titles, a debacle.
But the aggressive purchasing policy did not work.
The partly outdated newcomers only helped to a limited extent on the route.
Königstransfer Mesut Özil has not been a reinforcement so far either. After the first short appearances, the 2014 world champion suffered a serious ankle injury and was out for weeks. Since his return, Özil has been looking for himself. Influencers close to the club recently spread the statistics that all 28 passes that Özil played in the duel against relegated Ankaragücü reached the teammate. They did not mention that he remained inconspicuous for 79 minutes. On the penultimate day of the match, Fenerbahçe could have taken the lead with a win against Sivasspor, but lost 2-1 and fell into third place.
Galatasaray also pursued an aggressive personnel policy, but rather internal disputes disrupted the league.
The cancer-stricken President Mustafa Cengiz and the almighty coach Fatih Terim are at war and have been fighting each other through the media for months.
Cengiz, who once acted as a cozy expert in the afternoon program on the club's own TV station and was elected president as a protest candidate in 2018, lacks the power to stand up to Terim or even to fire him.
Fatih Terim: Turkish national coach for a long time, the head coach of Galatasaray since 2017
Photo: © Leonhard Foeger / Reuters / REUTERS
In order to demonstrate power nonetheless, Cengiz takes out his anger on the players. Younes Belhanda, once also under contract with Schalke 04, was fired because he criticized the space in the Türk-Telekom-Stadion. Most recently, he questioned the players '“honor and dignity” live on TV, and there was talk of the gamers' sex parties. Terim, who will soon be featured in a documentary on Netflix, points to his successes and knows that he has the masses behind him.
So the field was free for Besiktas to establish himself as a constant in sport. The club from the port and working-class district is plagued by major financial problems and therefore only has a small squad in comparison, which coach and club icon Sergen Yalcin has managed successfully so far. But the long list of failures in the final spurt of the season left Yalcin passed out. To make matters worse, star striker Vincent Aboubakar apparently refuses to complete another assignment for Besiktas in order to escape a clause that keeps him at Besiktas for an annual salary of 800,000 euros. The Cameroonian obviously wants a lot more. But if his team wins the last game of the season in Izmir, the title is perfect.
Then, after a very long season, association president Nihat Özdemir will present the champions with the trophy. As if everything was fine. "Kuzu Kuzu
".
