By Chizalam Emuchay
In the summer of 2015 Barcelona agreed to pay €40m (including add ons) to Atletico Madrid for Turkish captain Arda Turan after then head coach Luis Enrique demanded him. The club had it's Presidential election that summer and he was signed shortly before the elections. Laporta, one of the candidates (he eventually came second) said if he won the election that his first move would be to veto Arda's transfer. His reasons were the transfer fee, his age and suitability to the Barça style. In the end Bartomeu was reelected and Arda Turan's transfer went through, I'm a big fan of Arda Turan so of course I was really excited he signed for Barça. Barcelona were imposed with a two window transfer ban which was due to expire the coming January and that meant he'll miss about 6 months of action alongside fellow summer signing Aleix Vidal. He made his Barcelona debut on 6th January, 2016 against RCD Espanyol in the Copa Del Rey round of 16 first leg at the Nou Camp while rocking the number 7 shirt vacated by Pedro. I was in the US at the time and I watched the entire game.
He placed a shot in the second
half that was saved by Espanyol goalkeeper Pau. Over all his debut was "decent"
In his first season he made a total of 21 appearances scoring 2 times and registering 3 assists.
The Barcelona faithful were understandably patient as he needed time to adapt especially after his 6 months layoff from competitive football, the following season (2016/17) was going to be make or break for him.
On the 17th of August 2016, Turan scored twice and Lionel Messi once as Barcelona earned a 3–0 second leg victory over Sevilla to win the 2016
Supercopa de España 5–0 on aggregate. He assisted Luis Suarez for the opener in the first leg in Seville. He played on the left side of a forward 3 due to Neymar's injury. After his performance in both legs of the Supercopa, everyone thought the real Arda had arrived.
Over the course of the season he played just 18 La Liga games with 3 goals and 3 assists. Turan scored his first and only hat-trick for Barcelona during a dead rubber champions League group stage match against Borussia Mönchengladbach on 7th December, 2016. Barcelona only won the Copa Del Rey that season and he didn't play in the final. Injuries were a constant setback for the Turk as he had 10 injuries in total during his stint with the Catalan club.
He made only 55 appearances in total each one costing the club around €1m when the transfer fee and his wages are taken into account.
After Ernesto Valverde was appointed as manager for the 2017/18 season, Arda Turan never played for the club again and left on loan to Turkish club
İstanbul Başakşehir F.K for the remainder of his Barcelona contract. It was really sad watching a key player for Atletico Madrid not even making the Barcelona bench.
Who is to blame for the Arda's failed transfer?
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