Robin van Persie has cachet in Turkey.
The striker’s move from Manchester United to Fenerbahce in the summer was just about the biggest single endorsement of the impressive recruiting power of Turkish clubs during the last transfer window.
On Sunday, he should be among several household names on the cast list of the Istanbul derby, as his club host Galatasaray.
There is Fenerbahce’s Portuguese winger, Nani, a former teammate of Van Persie’s at United. There is Lukas Podolski, the German World Cup winner who left Arsenal in August to join the Netherlands captain Wesley Sneijder at Galatasaray.
Podolski, in need of action and goals to restore his confidence after a lean period in London and then a frustrating five months at Inter Milan, was on target in Galatasaray’s midweek win over Benfica in the Uefa Champions League, boosting his reputation among Gala fans.
Meanwhile, Van Persie has gained popularity among Turkish supporters in general in the last two weeks, although not for reasons he would appreciate.
When he scored an own goal playing for the Dutch, on the occasion of his 101st cap, against the Czech Republic during the last round of Euro 2016 group-phase qualifiers, much of Turkey cheered.
The Netherlands and the Turks were involved in a duel for third place in their Group A, the only remaining route to the finals for both of them, and the former needed to win against the Czechs to maintain any hope of gaining it.
They lost 3-2. Van Persie scored at both ends on a dispiriting night. Neither he nor Sneijder will be in France next summer. Turkey will be there instead.
Van Persie has not had a happy few months.
He was left out of the Dutch starting line-up for the last two matches in which they failed to regain the initiative of a disappointing campaign.
Manager Danny Blind explained his decisions to use Van Persie from the substitutes’ bench by saying that was where Fenerbahce head coach Vitor Pereira, formerly at Al Wahda, tended to put the striker, too.
Van Persie, 32, has only been in the starting XI for half of his club’s eight Super Lig fixtures so far. His start against Kaysersipor last weekend — he scored the only goal of the game — was his first in over a month in the league.
Those three points kept Fenerbahce on Galatasaray’s coat-tails — they sit third and second in the table — and they are both two points behind Besiktas, the other Istanbul giants, who also recruited a renowned striker in the summer.
Mario Gomez, the German international on loan from Fiorentina has six goals so far in the Super Lig — as does Samuel Eto’o, another newcomer to Turkish football.
The Cameroonian has been rolling back the years in the colours of Antalyaspor. Van Persie and Podolski are both on four goals each.
Like Galatasaray, Fenerbahce were boosted by a win in Europe during the week. Thursday’s 1-0 Europa League victory over Ajax was achieved thanks to a late header from Brazilian striker Fernandao, who had replaced Van Persie.
Pereira said he would only make a decision on who begins up front against Gala on the morning of the match.
“We need some time to recover,” said the Portuguese coach, who is anxious that Galatasaray, who hosted Benfica last Wednesday, have had an extra day to ready themselves.
“We have to be fully concentrated. It’s a really important match for us if we to achieve our targets.”
One of those targets is certainly the title, which 20 times the Turkish champions Galatasaray hold, and which Fenerbahce, who have 19 championships, won in 2014.
That neck-and-neck joust for status as the country’s most decorated club is part of what makes the rivalry so intense.
The atmosphere will be raucous. Van Persie hopes he does not to have to sample it from a seated position in the dugout.
PLAYER TO WATCH — Mohamed Salah (Roma)
Fiorentina and Roma are first and second in Serie A this morning. That is quite enough to charge up their meeting on Sunday. But there is an extra voltage to the fixture, which is the presence in the Roma squad of Mohamed Salah. Five months ago, he was a Fiorentina hero.
Tuscan adventure
Salah officially belongs to neither club. He is on loan at Roma from Chelsea, who signed the Egyptian from Basel in January 2014, when he was 21. A year later, after irregular first-team starts in an attacking midfield where there was intense competition for places from Eden Hazard, Oscar, Willian, among many others, Chelsea lent him to Fiorentina. So successful was he in his five months there, the Tuscan club quickly asked his parent club if he could stay on.
Tug of war
Salah scored six goals and provided three assists in his 16 Serie A matches for Fiorentina, and he scored both goals in a 2-1 win at Juventus in the first leg of a Coppa Italia tie. He spoke of his happiness in Florence and was assured by Chelsea that he could continue in Italy. But they were soon hearing of alternative interest.
Gazumped
Roma had admired Salah’s repertoire at close hand in the group phase of last season’s Europa League, when Fiorentina emphatically knocked out the club from the Italian capital. Roma agreed a loan deal with Chelsea in the summer that will finish next summer with him moving permanently to Rome. Fiorentina believed they had been let down and have lodged a complaint against Chelsea and Salah with Fifa.
The fastest Pharaoh
World football’s governing body could ban Salah, but its investigation is likely to be lengthy and it may not cast its verdict until next year. Meanwhile, the Egyptian who has 39 caps for his country, is startling Serie A defences with his eye-catching pace and maintaining the fine record in front of goal he had with Fiorentina. He has four goals from eight league appearances for Roma. Add to that tomorrow, and he will be even more unpopular in the Florence that used to be his home.
CAN’T MISS MATCH — Juventus v Atalanta (Serie A)
Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri’s decision to consign €40 million (Dh28.7m) forward Paulo Dybala to the substitutes’ bench appears to have backfired after his side’s failure to score in their last two games.
Dybala was seen as the natural replacement for Carlos Tevez when his fellow Argentine moved to Boca Juniors in the close season.
But, although he has managed three Serie A goals since his arrival, Dybala made only late substitute appearances in Juventus’s last two games, at Inter Milan and at home to Borussia Monchengladbach.
Both of those games ended 0-0, leading critics to question Allegri’s judgement especially given the lack of cohesion between forwards Alvaro Morata and Mario Mandzukic on Wednesday.
“Dybala is young and has quality, but needs to mature,” Allegri said ahead of Sunday’s match with Atalanta. “He will become a great player, but in a different role to the one he had last season at Palermo.”
Those words failed to placate Allegri’s critics who pointed out that Dybala had livened up the Juventus attack when he came on late in Wednesday’s game.
Dybala’s previous club president Maurizio Zamparini of Palermo led the criticism.
“I am very angry with Allegri. He is ruining a champion. Dybala is football, Allegri isn’t,” Zamparini told Radio Sportiva in an interview.
“He has to be free to play and express himself, like the great talents such as Lionel Messi. I’ve written to Paulo telling him to ask Juventus to send him somewhere else.”
This season has taken on a different complexion with Juventus lying a modest 14th with nine points from eight games, five behind the Bergamo side who are joint seventh.
(Agence France-Presse)
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