One of the biggest shocks surrounding this story was finding out that Arda Turan is still technically a Barcelona player. He hadn’t featured for the Catalans in over two years and has spent most of his time on loan in Turkey,
It was surprising when Barca made the move to sign him from Atletico in 2015, there was a feeling that Diego Simeone had run him into the ground and he might not be the player he once was. That was proven as he struggled to make any kind of impact at The Nou Camp.
He’s spent most of his time on loan at Istanbul Basaksehir but things haven’t been perfect there either. The BBC reported he was given a suspended jail sentence for firing a gun in the hospital, while Goal.com reported he got a 16 game ban for attacking a linesman.
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All of that suggests he has no future in Spain, but it’s surprising to see a report from Hurriyet suggesting he is expected to move to Galatasaray in January.
It’s impossible to tell how reliable the reports are, but Basaksehir are widely seen as the government’s team in Turkey with allegations of money laundering and using them for propaganda purposes. Despite being one of the best teams in Turkey, they average about 3000 supporters a game, so that should set financial fair play alarm bells ringing.
Turkish fans are known for their passion and holding grudges, so it remains to be seen if the Galatasaray fans would accept him after everything that’s gone on in the past few years. He started his career at Gala but playing for Basaksehir might not be something they are willing to overlook.
Despite that, it’s pretty clear that he has no future at Barcelona so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him leave on a permanent basis.