Turkey are rich with playmakers, including Hakan Calhanoglu, The Athletic‘s Serie A player of the season for 2023-24. That Italian influence runs deep in their national team, including the manager Vincenzo Montella, who might expect some calls from Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the tournament… especially if the former Roma striker is unable to fix his side’s vulnerability to the press.
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The manager
The Little Airplane, as the 5ft 8in (173cm) Vincenzo Montella became known in his playing days because of his arms-out goal celebration, quickly achieved lift-off as Turkey manager after getting the job last September.
The opening goal of his reign, by Baris Alper Yilmaz the following month, was historic in more ways than one, because it condemned Croatia to their first ever home defeat in a European Championship qualifier. Then in November, Turkey surprised Germany in another away game, coming from 1-0 down to win 3-2 in a Berlin friendly.
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Montella has resurrected his managerial career at the crossroads between Europe and Asia. He’d lost his way after showing early promise with a trio of fourth-place finishes, a Coppa Italia final and a Europa League semi-final in his first spell at Fiorentina between 2012-15 then a Champions League quarter-final and Copa del Rey final with Spain’s Sevilla in 2018.
He was brave enough to take a chance on Adana Demirspor when they were a newly-promoted side playing in the Super Lig for the first time in nearly three decades. After coming ninth in his 2021-22 debut season with a team featuring fellow former Italy striker Mario Balotelli, in year two Montella led them to a fourth-place finish, which was enough for Europa Conference League football — their first ever place in a UEFA competition.
The job he did in Adana persuaded the Turkish FA to entrust him with the national team. “The feeling I get is similar to Italy,” he said. “(Turkey) reminds me of what it was like in my childhood.”
Turkey coach Montella (Eva Manhart/APA/AFP/Getty Images)
The household name in waiting
It can’t be Arda Guler. He broke through at Fenerbache, then was signed by Real Madrid last July at age 19. Four goals in the final three appearances of his debut season with the European champions, all in the past month, further underlined his status as a wonderkid. “The squad loves Guler very much,” Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti said. “We are very happy that he’s here. He has a gift. He scores goals when he doesn’t deserve it. I think it’s because the ball is in love with Arda.”
Kenan Yildiz, on the other hand, is still quite new to Turkish fans. Juventus signed the Bavaria-born forward from Bayern Munich in summer 2022 and he has just finished his break-out season in Serie A. Another 19-year-old, Yildiz was hyped to the rafters after he fleetingly took Federico Chiesa’s place in the first team just before Christmas and scored a meandering, Alessandro Del Piero-esque goal against Frosinone.
Juventus renewed his contract until summer 2027 at the beginning of last season, and it’s just as well, because transfer interest in Yildiz is heating up based on the few flickers he has shown of his talent so far.
Yildiz playing for Juventus in January (Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
Strengths
Turkey have a handful of silky playmakers who, on their day, can lift the team to great heights.
Yildiz was one of the revelations in Serie A last season. Montella called him up on the basis of his performances for Juventus’ Next Gen (as the under-23s are known) and about half an hour of first-team football. He then scored in that win against Germany in Berlin, his first international start, to put Turkey 2-1 up at half-time. Guler is fit again after knee surgery in August, and took his chance late in the season with Madrid. Watching these kids step up on the big stage is encouraging for the national team’s future.
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Elsewhere, it would not come as a surprise if new head coach Arne Slot were to ask the Liverpool hierarchy for a reunion with his former Feyenoord midfielder Orkun Kokcu, who last summer became one of the players in whom Benfica reinvested the money Chelsea paid them for Enzo Fernandez in the January.
Kokcu playing for Benfica in March (Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images)
Weaknesses
Ralf Rangnick’s Austria pressed Turkey to death in March, turning an even game into a 6-1 rout. Their press resistance needs work and Turkey will have to be careful in their build-up.
One of the team’s undeniable strengths is Hakan Calhanoglu’s reinvention as a great No 6. The conundrum for Montella is that Calhanoglu plays with the safety net of a back three behind him at Inter Milan — cover he doesn’t have in a Turkey shirt. How they try to fit him, Yildiz and Guler into the starting XI without compromising the side’s balance and defensive phase will be of great interest this summer.
Player of the Season | Serie A 2023/24
🥇 Hakan Calhanoglu (Inter Milan)
"The reinvention of Calhanoglu has taken his game and Inter to another level."#TAFCAwards pic.twitter.com/sy1zboGfbU
— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) May 21, 2024
Here’s something you won’t know
National president Recep Tayyip Erdogan likes to ring Montella’s phone number after Turkey’s matches. Erdogan doesn’t speak Italian and Montella isn’t fluent in Turkish, talking to the players in a mix of his mother tongue (several of the squad play in Serie A) and English.
This has made for some humorous exchanges.
When Erdogan called Montella to congratulate him after a 4-0 win against Latvia in Euros qualifying in October, he summoned what he could recall from his last state visit to Italy, in 2018.
“Gracias,” he said.
Expectations back home
Back home? What about the expectations of the huge Turkish diaspora in Germany? There are more than a million throughout the country, and the atmosphere at that friendly in Berlin last November made it feel like a home match for Turkey. The goalscorers for Turkey that night — Ferdi Kadioglu, Yildiz and Yusuf Sari — are all foreign-born.
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The first two of Turkey’s group games, against Georgia and Portugal, will be played in Dortmund, where there are around 23,000 Turkish nationals. The third, against the Czech Republic, is in Hamburg, where there are more than 58,000.
Turkey’s squad
Goalkeepers:Mert Gunok(Besiktas),Ugurcan Cakir(Trabzonspor),Altay Bayindir(Manchester United)
Defenders:Zeki Celik(Roma),Merih Demiral(Al-Ahli),Mert Muldur (Fenerbahce), Ferdi Kadioglu (Fenerbahce), Abdulkerim Bardakci(Galatasaray),Samet Akaydin(Fenerbahce),Ahmetcan Kaplan (Ajax)
Midfielders: Hakan Calhanoglu (Inter),Kaan Ayhan(Galatasaray),Okay Yokuslu(West Bromwich Albion), Orkun Kokcu (Benfica),Salih Ozcan(Borussia Dortmund),Ismail Yuksek(Fenerbahce)
Forwards:Cenk Tosun (Besiktas), Semih Kilicsoy (Besiktas), Arda Guler (Real Madrid),Yusuf Yazici(Lille), Irfan Kahveci (Fenerbahce),Kerem Akturkoglu, Baris Alper Yilmaz,Yunus Akgun(all Galatasaray), Kenan Yildiz (Juventus),Bertug Yildirim (Rennes)
(Top photo: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
James Horncastle covers Serie A for The Athletic. He joins from ESPN and is working on a book about Roberto Baggio.
