Galatasaray continues to make signings that are impossible to believe the moment they are announced. For example, the Istanbul club signed former Napoli and Serie A star Victor Osimhen. The Super League champions have signed the Nigerian striker on loan for one year and will pay him his full salary. This, according to official information, is 6 million euros. And if you believe some insiders (Fabrizio Romano wrote about this), then the total is 9-10 million euros.
Reaction to Osimhen’s transfer to Galatasaray:
The biggest loser of the summer transfer market
In total, over the past three years and seven transfer windows, Galatasaray has paid 150 million euros for newcomers. There is a feeling that if such signings had been made, for example, by Zenit, then in Russia they would simply have destroyed those who were already there. The St. Petersburg club is criticized for any expensive purchases. Moreover, it is not even about the amounts spent on the transfers themselves. After all, the Turks do not pay 40 million euros for players, as Zenit did in the stories with Malcolm and earlier with Hulk. And Galatasaray’s eternal competitors, Fenerbahce Istanbul, paid even more for newcomers over the same three years – 170 million euros.
Today Galatasaray will play against Fenerbahce, and this is an opportunity not only for Osimhen, but also for the rest of the newcomers to make themselves known as high as possible.
The nonsense is elsewhere. Galatasaray brings to the Turkish Championship, a tournament on roughly the same level as the RPL, real stars who receive incredible salaries. Even Zenit could not afford such players when it played in the Champions League. With the transfer of Osimhen, of course, the Istanbul club was lucky: the transfer of the striker to another club in the top European league failed, the summer window was closed in almost all major championships, and amid the conflict with Napoli, the Nigerian was forced to accept Galatasaray’s offer. Victor turned a blind eye even to the fact that the Istanbul team was eliminated from the Champions League, unexpectedly losing in qualifying to the Swiss Young Boys. The Turks will play in the Europa League in the fall.
Paying huge salaries to players, knowing that you will never fight for a Champions League victory (not even for the quarter-finals!) and having an unstable local currency is a very controversial policy. But at “Galatasaray” they do not reject it. This means that we are convinced that this is the best path for the Istanbul Club.
Galatasaray president Dursun Özbek
Photo: galatasaray.org
The most striking example before Osimhen’s transfer was the signing of Mauro Icardi from PSG. It was reported that the Argentine striker also earns 6 million euros a year at Galatasaray. Now, with the crazy combination of Osimhen and Icardi, the Turkish giants can break through any defense. It is true that Mauro is now injured. But he should be back on the field soon. Which Russian club had such a high-level duo in attack? None.
In addition, in the last transfer windows, Galatasaray brought in Nicolo Zaniolo from Roma and Hakim Ziyech from Chelsea. Both players earned €3.5 million per year at the Istanbul club. Tottenham’s Davinson Sanchez received €3.2 million and Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha €4.35 million.
Moreover, this is not the case when a club has a star player with a high salary for the entire team. At the same time, Galatasaray had many highly paid foreign players. In the list of illustrious additions to the Istanbul club in the last seven transfer windows there are other players who could only go to Turkey on very favourable terms. For example, defenders Serge Aurier, Angelinho and Leo Dubois, midfielders Lucas Torreira, Tanguy Ndombele and Juan Mata, forwards Michy Batshuayi and Dries Mertens (they wrote that the Belgian would go to Istanbul for a salary of 4 million euros per year). Somehow Galatasaray fit into the financial fair play. The only thing that mattered was that and the final result.
Galatasaray have won the Super League for the past two seasons. In the current Turkish championship, the team has achieved three victories in the first three rounds. Fenerbahce are trying to regain their gold and have brought Jose Mourinho to Istanbul to do so. Transfermarkt now estimates Galatasaray’s squad at 288.45 million euros, and Fenerbahce’s squad, with all expenses, at 231.35 million euros. In comparison, the squad of the RPL leaders, Zenit, only costs 181.2 million euros.
According to Transfermarkt, Galatasaray’s transfer spending has exceeded income from player sales by more than 40 million euros over the past three years. Meanwhile, the club’s budget expenditure for the current season, as Turkish media write, will amount to 4.7 billion Turkish liras. This is approximately equivalent to 125 million euros.
“My dream signing is Ilkay Gundogan. Maybe the time has come to implement it,” Galatasaray president Dursun Ozbek said during this summer window. They would probably have signed the former Barcelona midfielder if the German had not decided to return to Manchester City. But with such a transfer philosophy, the Turkish champions will sooner or later take over Gundogan. Maybe in a year.
Galatasaray’s talent unexpectedly arrived in the RPL:
This is a transfer from the average RPL peasant! The newcomer from Orenburg played in the Champions League with Bayern in the autumn
In the RPL we didn’t even dream of seeing players of the calibre of Gundogan, Osimhen or Icardi until 2022. At least not since the day Suleiman Kerimov closed the Anzhi project and said goodbye to Samuel Eto’o.
