What's happened to Kenneth Paal since he left QPR for Turkey | OneFootball

The Suriname international signed for Super Lig outfit Antalyaspor in the summer

Kenneth Paal was a big loss to Queens Park Rangers in the summer, having spent three seasons with the club.

The left-back’s contract expired in the summer and, without an agreement between the parties, he left Loftus Road in the summer.

He pitched up not long after with Super Lig side Antalyaspor, based in Turkey.

Here, Football League World takes a look at how he’s been getting on since leaving QPR…

Kenneth Paal has established himself with Antalyaspor

Paal has gone straight in at Antalyaspor as a first-team player, starting 11 of the side’s opening 12 Super Lig games.

Those appearances have come primarily at full-back, the role QPR supporters are most familiar with him playing, but he has also popped up in a more advanced role in recent weeks.

Antalyaspor boss Erol Bulut – who supporters in the UK will remember as former Cardiff City manager – has tweaked the system to play three at the back, having been appointed to the post last month.

While Paal’s game time has been good, clocking almost 1000 Super Lig minutes for the club already, the overall performances of the side has been poor, symptomatic of the early manager change.

The side sit in 13th place in the 18-team league, only six points above Fatih Karagumruk in last place.

Paal, unlike his QPR days, has been unable to influence the headline stats, yet to record a goal or assist for his new side.

He is joined at Antalyaspor by Hull City loanee Abdulkadir Omur, who is on his second temporary stint away from the Tigers in Turkey, having pitched up with Rizespor last season.

The left-back has led a relatively quiet life since landing in Turkey

Paal was announced by Antalyaspor on 26 July, since which he hasn’t uploaded a post to his official Instagram account, his last offering being photos of him at the Gold Cup with Suriname in June, before which most of his posts are QPR content.

The only hint that he has signed for a new club is in the ‘highlights’ section of his account, marked with a red and white circle, the home colours of Antalyaspor, which contains two reposts from the club’s official account of photos of him in club gear.

Aside from that, there is little trace of what Paal has been up to while in Turkey, a sign perhaps that he is enjoying a quieter life.

Wages may have been a strong motivation for the Super Lig move

According to estimates from Capology, Paal was taking home £8,077 per week in the last year of his QPR contract.

For the Turkish side, where he signed a three-year deal, Paal is estimated by the same site to be on a basic wage of £11,719, plus a bonus of £2,887, which is getting towards almost double what he earned at the west London club.

On top of that, players moving on a free transfer often pocket a good portion of whatever the club may have spent on a transfer fee, paid as a signing-on bonus.

It’s not known in Paal’s case whether that happened, and, if it did, how much it was worth, but it would not be unusual for it to represent a significant payment.

There’s no suggestion that is the only reason Paal as gone, as investment in the Super Lig is strong and there is a lot of top talent in the league, but it may well have been a factor.