Michael Reschke felt a sense of hopelessness when he saw Ozan Kabak play with his own eyes for the first time.
The transfer specialist, who had landed at VfB Stuttgart from Bayer Leverkusen via FC Bayern, had heard of this exciting defender from Istanbul in 2018 and had flown to Turkey for more detailed research: “What are we actually doing here?
We can never get this player, how is that supposed to work?
It's way too good, ”he said to his companion from Stuttgart after playing for 20 minutes, remembers Reschke.
At the end of the trip, he was still able to convince Kabak to move to the Bundesliga because of the development opportunities.
The 21-year-old professional is now one of the most interesting defensive talents in Europe.
As a player from a country that is increasingly developing into a center-back nation.
Powerful defenders
When Italy opens the EM against Turkey on Friday evening (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship, on ARD and MagentaTV), Kabak, who was last loaned to Liverpool by FC Schalke, may not play at all because two Defending colleagues even better: the former Freiburg resident Caglar Söyüncü, 25, from Leicester City and Merih Demiral, 23, from Juventus Turin. Before Reschke, other scouts were amazed at the massive defenders who have matured in Turkey over the past few years.
Freiburg sports director Klemens Hartenbach was enraptured by Söyüncü, whom the club bought from the Turkish second division in 2016 for more than two million euros, although he had never played a first division game in his life: "We were particularly impressed by his strength in duels and his dynamism" said Hartenbach at the time. Many observers considered the investment to be highly risky, two years later the Bundesliga club sold Söyüncü to Leicester for 21 million euros - the club's record transfer to this day.
This energetic player has earned a lot of respect in the Premier League;
Now Söyüncü also wants to inspire the EM audience, who will be presented with Juves Demiral, a third Turkish defender of exceptional quality.
Demiral recently defended at his club alongside the celebrated youngster Mattijs de Ligt and with Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci, two grandmasters of defensive skills.
Defensive as a problem area
For many years the defensive was the problem area for the Turks, at the moment the central defense is the showpiece of the whole team.
In eight of their ten qualifying games for the European Championship, the Turks did not concede.
Coach Senol Günes' ensemble has developed a defensive stability that is probably unique in the history of this football nation, and that has a lot to do with opening up to Europe.
Of the eight defenders in the squad, only Ridman Yilmaz plays in the domestic Süper Lig, where high salaries are paid, but the level cannot keep up with the fees.
When Söyüncü made his national team debut in 2016, there were only three players in the starting line-up who did not play in Turkey.
When the team beat Holland 4-2 in March's World Cup qualification, there were nine.
This influence from the bigger leagues is obviously good for the Turkish team. The 35-year-old striker Burak Yilamz was flanked by his national team-mates Yusuf Yazici and Zeki Celic with the Lille OSC French champions. And the careers of players like Söyüncü, Kabak and Demial, who are the most valuable Turkish players on the transfer market alongside the former Leverkusen-based Hakan Calhanoglu (AC Milan), are now seen as models for other talents.
The idea of first trying to get through to one of Istanbul's big clubs and then moving to a bigger league has often turned out to be unwise because there are better opportunities for development elsewhere. Even for a player like Kabak, who had the misfortune to relegate first with Stuttgart and then get into the downfall epic of FC Schalke, where he lost his form before his loan to Liverpool.
In England under Jürgen Klopp he started again in the winter, Reschke says: "I hear from Liverpool that they say internally that Ozan Kabak played a decisive role in ensuring that they still qualified for the Champions League." The purchase option, with whose help Liverpool could have committed Kabak for 20 million euros from the relegated from Gelsenkirchen, Klopp still did not pull. Savings have to be made in England too.
Nevertheless, Kabak “did an incredible job” and, at 21 years of age, has “a lot of experience”, says Klopp. Now not only the Turks, but also those responsible at Schalke are hoping for a good tournament from Kabak, in order to raise the price for a player that Reschke still raves about: “Ozan is an offensively defending central defender, he is extreme Strong at the head, defensive and offensive, he has a good opening and is able to drive balls. "