Turkey, as a national team, had a good international break on the football pitch. Off it, not so much.
Beating Albania and holding France to a draw, Senol Gunes’ men currently sit top of their group, and yet, due to their celebrations after both of their goals, that’s not what’s being talked about, as, despite UEFA prohibiting political statements in stadiums from players, the likes of Merih Demiral, Burak Yilmaz and Umut Meras gave the salute towards fans ‘in an apparent support of the Turkish forces involved in the country’s incursion into Kurdish-held regions in northern Syria’.
An investigation has been opened, and it detracted from good performances from many players, like that of the aforementioned Demiral, currently at Juventus, but who has caught the eye of Manchester United.
That’s nothing new in itself, as there are reports dating back from 2018 claiming the Old Trafford club were looking at him, while a United scout (Krsto Kilibarda) was spotted attending a game next to his agent back in September of 2019.
There’s more, as the player’s idol growing up was Nemanja Vidic, and Fotospor in Turkey believed the player is ‘waiting for an offer’ from Manchester United, who are said to be interested.
Well, that’s all led to this claim from TuttoJuve, who state Demiral is ‘very sought after’, with ‘big clubs’ showing a lot of interest in him.
They then add United have ‘offered over €30m’, but Juventus said no, because Fabio Paratici ‘believes in him’ and deems him ‘unsellable’.
Either way, if the Premier League side did only seriously offer that amount for a highly sought after defender, they need to have a serious word with themselves, especially in today’s market.
Maybe they were just testing the waters? Yeah, we’ll say they were just testing the waters.
