Ex-Manchester Keepers Stage a Turkish Derby | OneFootball

Last Sunday United and City would face off for the 197th time in their storied Manchester derby. But 3,337km away from the Etihad, in Istanbul, a different and slightly odder Manchester-ish derby took place. How an early-season match in the Turkish Süper Lig bears any relevance to Manchester is explained by the two individuals who stood between the posts.

The Manchester Goalkeeper Sagas

Both Manchester clubs experienced big drama with goalkeepers this summer transfer window. Both clubs also said farewell to their former number ones in favor of new blood.

Ederson

City spent $36.7M to strip James Trafford away from Burnley early in the transfer window, then inexplicably dropped $35.4M to woo Gianluigi Donnarumma from Paris Saint-Germain. No matter how you slice it, $72.1M was a LOT to pay for two goalkeepers, especially when Ederson, one of the world’s top keepers, was still in the stable.

The Brazilian suffered four bouts of injury last season, but his statistics were still strong. His average goals conceded (1.0) was the highest of his eight years, but his goals prevented score was 4.46, his highest number in four years. At 32, Ederson is on the top end of a goalkeeper’s prime years, but Pep apparently wanted younger hands. He was sold to Fenerbahçe for $16.5M.

Onana

André Onana’s love-hate relationship with United has been well chronicled in print and social media. Brought in by manager Erik ten Hag for around $62M in July 2023, Onana has widely been considered a bust. In his debut match, a friendly, he was chipped for a goal from 50 yards out. Things didn’t get much better after that, though his performance in the 2024 FA Cup run and last season’s Europa League campaign were good.

It’s been clear that Rúben Amorim doesn’t hold the Cameroonian in high regard. Onana also didn’t do himself any favors by publicly seeking a contract renegotiation, and then delivered horrific performances early in the season (including an error in the Grimsby Carabao Cup match). Amorim quickly moved onto Altay Bayındır, and United said “good riddance to bad rubbish” by negotiating Onana’s loan to Trabzonspor for no fee and no buy option.

Turkish Delight on Sunday

This turgid backstory provided Sunday’s match between Fenerbahçe and Trabzonspor with a few more dishes for the meze platter. And what a spicy dish it turned out to be!

Trabzonspor took an early lead from Paul Onuachu’s header. However, the goal was scrubbed after a lengthy VAR review after the official determined Onuachu guilty of a foul during the build-up. Ten minutes later, Trabzonspor’s Okay Yokuslu caught Kerem Aktürkoglu studs up on the ankle. The referee’s yellow was upgraded to red after another VAR intervention.

Facing 70 minutes of playing a man down, Trabzonspor’s hopes were slim. Enter André Onana, who proceeded to elevate his status to superhuman. He recorded eight saves and many more clearances, and finished the game with the highest player rating on the pitch. The goal Fenerbahçe did score came from a defensive blunder, and was no fault of the keeper. Ederson, outside of the initial called back goal, wasn’t even tested as Fenerbahçe dominated the game.

Match statistics (Source: ESPN)

So far, advantage Onana, even if his team did suffer the loss.