By Danny Rust
Turkish football has attracted some of football’s biggest strikers in recent years, and this year a new wave of successful frontmen moved to Istanbul and the Super Lig.
Samuel Eto’o, 34, Robin van Persie, 32, and Mario Gomez, 30, moved to Turkey’s Super Lig in the summer and the trio were a real coup for Turkish football. They have all been the leading scorers over a domestic season in either England, Spain or Germany.
Nani, the former Manchester United winger, and Lukas Podolski, who had a tough time at Arsenal, also headed for Istanbul in the summer and now the Super Lig is littered with formidable attacking players. Between Eto’o, van Persie, Gomez, Nani and Podolski, they have won three Spanish La Liga titles, four Bundesliga shields, a Premier League, and five Champions Leagues.
Why Turkey? Well, the massive wages on offer could have something to do with it…
In Turkey, a basic wage of €3m-€4m per year is on offer, and the country has a slender tax rate. This attracted Gomez to swap Italy for Turkey, and persuaded van Persie, Nani and Podolski to leave the Premier League.
Van Persie, who was Fenerbahce’s marquee signing in the summer, is reported to be on a deal worth €300,000 (£215,000) per week and, with the low tax rate, RVP will pocket the vast majority of that amount.
Meanwhile, Podolski was not only happy to leave the Emirates Stadium because he was getting little game time, but because he will be earning €2.5m (£1.8m) a season with Galatasaray.
Podolski, van Persie and Gomez were seen as the trophy signings of the summer.
Although Arsenal fans would argue Podolski did not show his best form in north London, Galatasaray saw it as an opportunity to bring in a man who won the World Cup with Germany only 12 months ago.
With the Polish-born attacker being available for a small fee, Galatasaray were only too happy to acquire the former Cologne man.
Gomez, like Podolski, has also enjoyed great success in Germany. Having impressed for Stuttgart, the striker went on to produce four goal-laden years at the Allianz Arena with Bayern Munich. The Riedlingen-born man notched up 75 Bundesliga goals in just 115 appearances.
Although he was less successful in Italy with Fiorentina, he was still seen as a big-name loan signing for Besiktas, who had just lost Demba Ba. Van Persie has had success wherever he has gone and, although his time at Old Trafford did not end as planned, he was welcomed to Turkey’s biggest city with open arms.
They join the likes of Brazilian playmaker Diego, who has already been at Fenerbahce for a year, and Galatasaray’s Wesley Sneijder in the Super Lig.
All this would not have been possible, of course, if the restrictions on foreign players in the Super Lig had not been relaxed last year. Turkish clubs are now able to have no home players in their starting line-ups, but previously they were obliged to have at least five Turkish players on the pitch.
The new-boys are happy to be earning big bucks – with a smaller tax rate – than at their previous clubs, while Turkish football is also reaping the rewards, with more superstar striker on the pitch.
