For several generations, transferring to Türkiye has long been an appealing option for a certain class of footballer. Big clubs, big fanbases and big wages — if Europe’s top leagues are no longer an option for you, there are few better options than a season in the Super Lig.
This summer, however, the trend has subtly shifted, at least for one club. Galatasaray have launched one of the most ambitious spending drives in Europe this season, parting with more cash than Bayern Munich, Napoli and Juventus as they look to spin a unique series of economic benefits to their advantage. Victor Osimhen is the headline addition, the sixth most expensive signing of a record-breaking summer transfer window, but Galatasaray’s spending did not stop there. Leroy Sane was snared early in the window despite interest from Europe’s top clubs, no wonder when his net salary of $14 million would make him one of the top two or three earners in the Premier League.
Manchester City have managed to use Türkiye rather like they did Saudi Arabia two summers ago with Ilkay Gundogan ending his contract early and heading for Galatasaray. Their rivals can hardly let the champions streak further ahead and Fenerbahce have signed Ederson while bringing back a big name Turkish international in Kerem Akturkoglu. Marco Asensio, Milan Skriniar, Edson Alvarez and Jhon Duran are all big names on big wages who are heading to the eastern side of the Bosphorous. Their costs will at least be partially offset by the savings from sacking Jose Mourinho, whose Partridgian stay at the Istanbul Four Seasons was brought to an abrupt end when Benfica dumped his side out of the Champions League.
With the Super Lig transfer window remaining open until September 12, the deals may not be done yet. Ademola Lookman is understood to be wanted by Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, though sources tell CBS Sports’ Francesco Porzio that neither side has formalized their interest with Atalanta. For both, their autumn recruitment is at least partially restrained by their need to submit squads for UEFA competitions on September 2, but Besiktas, who crashed out of the Conference League playoffs, are free to snaffle up whatever is left on the market. CBS Sports revealed on Monday that they were prepared to double Reiss Nelson’s salary in a failed attempt to bring the Arsenal winger to Istanbul. Sergen Yalcin, who replaced Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, called for three or four new signings after defeat to Alanyaspor. That is quite a commitment at a club that has already brought in Orku Kokcu, Tammy Abraham and Wilfried Ndidi.
Where has the money come from?
Business is booming for Türkiye’s Big Three then and curiously one of the most significant factors in that might be the difficulties faced by the wider economy. At its peak in late 2021 and early 2022 inflation in Türkiye was running as high as 85.5%, the low interest rate, high growth policies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prompting a spiral in prices that is only just beginning to slow. Even now, at its lowest level in four years, the annual consumer price inflation sits at 33.5%. That is bad news if you are buying food or looking to get on the property ladder. but it has its upsides if you happen to be paid in Euros for your participation in a UEFA competition.
Not all of the top clubs’ costs are fixed in Turkish lira — high profile players such as Osimhen and Sane would be paid in Euros, according to sources — but ongoing inflation can help to ease some of their expenditure, as Turkish sports economist Alperen Koçsoy explains. “The Turkish players in the Turkish league are generally paid in Turkish lira,” he says. “If you’re paying them the equivalent of $200,000 a year at the start of the season, that might be $100,000 a year by the end.”
Inflation doesn’t only cut real-term pay packets, it serves to ease the domestic debt burden that threatened Turkish football in the late 2010s. The country’s biggest sides have been, and remain, defined by their short-term approach. Like Real Madrid and Barcelona, Türkiye’s top clubs are owned by their members. Presidents serve at their pleasure and often not for long (this has not been the case at Fenerbahce, where Ali Koc, part of the country’s wealthiest family, has been in charge since 2018). When leadership goes, the debts that might have been built up in their tenure become someone else’s problem. “The owners of these Turkish clubs, the members that is, they don’t care about profits,” Koçsoy says. “They just want the most wins on the pitch.”
By 2019 the debts had ballooned out of control. A $2 billion restructuring plan was announced by Türkiye’s banking association. What they owed was not written off though. and a portion of their revenue would have to go into chipping away at the mountain of money owed. The weakening lira did wonders for that debt burden, however. The Economist reported last month that Turkish club debt had fallen by 19% between 2019 and 2023.
Since then it has fallen further, particularly at Galatasaray, who ended its credit restructuring process in July. Okan Buruk’s side had been winning on the pitch with Osimhen et al, and now they were victorious in the boardroom too. The reason was not that they had decided to cut their cloth accordingly, but instead that they had found themselves sitting on a gold mine.
“The money in the Turkish market is a bit like Bitcoin,” says a source close to Galatasaray. “It’s in the air and no one knows where it’s coming from or where it’s going. What saved Gala was something very tangible, a real estate operation.”
Gala’s big sale
Since 1981 Galatasaray had been training at the Metin Oktay complex in the elegant seaside suburb of Florya. What Chelsea is to London, Florya is to Istanbul, Koçsoy says. “It’s a very attractive area to live.
“The city is quite crowded and they are building special things there. Lots of people including foreigners would like to buy an apartment there.”
In a city where over 15 million cram alongside each other, this is a neighbourhood of beaches, big properties, malls. In this part of Istanbul, 130,000 square yards of land is worth an awful lot. Over half a billion dollars, according to multiple reports, with a $55 million cash advance for Galatasaray. Koçsoy adds that there are further projects in Florya being undertaken directly by the club that will bring in more revenue.
Moving further north to Kemerburgaz meant the squad were training far nearer to where they were playing — it is a 10 or so minute drive to Rams Park — and gave Galatasaray a capital injection that allowed them to pay back the consortium that included state-run Ziraat Bank and Denizbank ahead of schedule.
That opened up avenues for investment in the playing squad. In 2024 Galatasaray found themselves in the fortunate situation where Osimhen wanted out of Napoli, but had found himself unable to escape before the window closed in Europe’s big leagues. Cimbom offered him the sort of Europa League minutes that would keep him on the radar of the best clubs in the game, but he found much more than that. “Osimhen loved it so much that he wanted to commit,” says the source close to Gala. “So the club took the step of paying an amount of money that for Türkiye and for Gala is crazy. If it weren’t for the real estate deal, there’s no way they could have done it. It was just the right moment.”
Galatasaray committed to a flat $87 million fee, nearly four times the previous biggest fee paid by a Turkish club (Youssef En-Nesyri‘s move to Fenerbahce in July of last year). Including loyalty bonuses and image rights payments, Osimhen earns nearly $25 million a year and Erdogan’s extremely hospitable tax arrangements for international footballers (a flat 20% income tax) means he takes home an awful lot of that. They didn’t stop there either. The three most expensive signings in Super Lig history were made by Galatasaray in the last five weeks as Wilfried Singo arrived from Monaco and, on deadline day, they swooped in to end Türkiye international Ugurcan Cakir‘s 13 year stint at Trabzonspor, the most successful club from outside Istanbul.
Crucially in sporting terms Galatasaray are building on solid foundations. They have accrued 197 points in the last two seasons, losing just three games, and though sources with knowledge of their squad building speak of a system where “talking and arguing” tend to lead the way over data analysis, they know how to get deals done. Take Davinson Sanchez, who has recovered some of his reputation since leaving Tottenham in 2023. Acutely aware of the difficulty in negotiating with Daniel Levy, Galatasaray presented a take it or leave it offer of $18.5 million for his services eight hours before the English transfer window closed. Levy kept them waiting until half an hour after the deadline but it didn’t matter for Galatasaray, who got the anchor of their title winning campaigns.
The right recruitment begets success on the pitch that opens up possibilities for more signings and, with the right coaching, success on the field. Through four games of the new season Galatasaray are humming, winning all four and with Osimhen, Sane and Mauro Icardi all finding form. A winning product on the pitch draws crowds who are having to pay a great deal for the product. A report from Turkiye Today in March estimated that, in terms of average income per capita, top clubs in Istanbul were selling one of the most expensive matchday experiences in European football. The lure of Champions League football saw season tickets sell out in one day, earning the club what Koçsoy estimates to be $50 million. “The fans were complaining about the prices,” he adds, “but there’s Champions League football, there’s huge players, people want to see those stars on the pitch whatever the cost.”
Rivals have to keep up
Naturally their rivals cannot simply accept Galatasaray’s dominance of the Super Lig. Fenerbahce have followed suit, not only in ambitious signings late in the window, but in turning some of their real estate into cash. On August 19 they announced plans to sell off a 73,000 square yard plot of land in the Atasehir district. According to Turkiye Today, it could bring in over $100 million in revenue. On the same day Fenerbahce announced that they had reached a deal to exit their agreement with the banks, affording themselves “the financial freedom to shape its future on its own.” Their statement to supporters added, “This decision is not merely a financial choice; it is Fenerbahce’s manifesto of independence.”
Since then they have committed nearly $70 million on five new signings, four permanent and a loan deal with West Ham for Edson Alvarez, with an average age of 27.2. New goalkeeper Ederson will earn nearly $13 million net on a guaranteed three year contract with the option for a further 12 months. More reinforcements may yet arrive while there have been links with an ambitious swoop for Sebastian Hoeness to fill the Mourinho-shaped hole in Fenerbahce’s dugout.
As Fenerbahce look to close the gap on their rivals, Besiktas merely need to get out of their own way. A source familiar with their workings describes it as “a very volatile club where presidents are like sweets in a playground. Actually they last less time than that. There’s zero stability. Every year they change the people that run the club.
“They don’t really have a policy, a footballing ideology. Results don’t stem from the coach, they don’t stem from the actual playing side. The players can churn out results, but the problems stem from a lack of ideology, which then reflects in a lack of methodology. What exactly do they want? They want success, but you have to build for success.”
One European sporting director was approached to take up the role at Besiktas, where he presented a vision for a grand overhaul of the 16 time champions, according to CBS Sports sources. It would take time, perhaps at least 18 months, for an upswing in results. He was told that ownership felt supporters would not tolerate such a long wait. The president would lose the election, the board of directors would depart and he would likely be out of a job too.
Besiktas certainly have the look of a short term fix and their imbalanced squad crashed out of both the Europa and Conference League before the competition proper began, resulting in Solskjaer’s sacking. That meant a 12th change of management since the start of 2022. Still, the club insists on the here and now, increasing its share capital in March so as to inject funds into the club. Those funds helped to secure the club record signing of Orkun Kokcu and Tammy Abraham, among others. They may have finished 33 points off top spot last season and 46 the year before, but it seems there is little appetite at the club for the sort of retrenchment and rebuilding that most clubs around Europe would commit to in these circumstances.
“No one is patient in Turkish football,” Koçsoy says. “Everyone is short sighted. They want success on the pitch immediately.”
So long as that remains the case, you can expect plenty more big money signings in Türkiye .
