New club for Salih Özcan? Turkish giants step up interest | OneFootball

Just under four weeks remain. Then Salih Özcan will be among the professionals without a club. But the 28-year-old ball-winning midfielder from Borussia Dortmund is unlikely to be without an employer for long. Now a Turkish top club is getting serious.

This year, Turkey will take part in a football World Cup for the first time since 2002. At the tournament in Japan and South Korea, the team led by Hakan Sükür, Emre Belözoglu and Hasan Sas surged all the way to third place. Since then, the “Crescent-Stars” have always fallen short in qualifying.

But this year, Turkey is back. In the group stage, co-hosts USA, Australia and Paraguay await. Reaching the knockout stage seems almost certain. Especially since the Milli Takim can call on top stars such as Arda Güler (21/Real Madrid), Hakan Calhanoglu (32/Inter Milan) and Kenan Yildiz (21/Juventus).

BVB pro Özcan is also part of the squad and already gained tournament experience at Euro 2024. The soon-to-be former Dortmund player has made 29 international appearances, and his contract expires on June 30, 2026. It is not out of the question that he could change clubs during the upcoming World Cup. There are said to already be several interested parties. His former club 1. FC Köln has been mentioned, but the names of Istanbul’s three big clubs also keep coming up in the rumor mill.

“Don’t talk to anyone”

According to the Turkish sports newspaper Fanatik, Besiktas is now stepping up its efforts. “We’ll sign you, don’t talk to anyone,” the club’s management has reportedly signaled to Özcan, the report says.

One advantage for the Cologne-born player is his dual citizenship. In 2021, he won the U21 European Championship while still wearing the shirt of the German Football Association. The following year, Özcan was already playing for Turkey’s senior national team.

Photo: Getty Images

Because the Turkish Süper Lig has a strict 10+4 foreign-player rule, Besiktas management is primarily focused on significantly increasing the quality of domestic players in the squad. Clubs may register a maximum of 14 foreign players. Among those 14, at least four must be U23 players. World Cup participant Özcan would not be affected by this rule.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.