6 forgotten players who fell off the footballing map after moving to Turkey
The Turkish Super Lig is famous for its track record of signing familiar faces from top European leagues, with Victor Osimhen, Edin Dzeko and Ciro Immobile lighting up the division in 2024-25.
But what about the footballers who go to Turkey and sink without a trace? Former Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal stars are among those whose careers have taken a downturn since they signed for big Turkish Super Lig clubs.
Here are six players who’ve totally gone under the radar ever since they signed for Turkish Super Lig clubs.
Dele Alli
We have nothing but respect for Dele after his refreshing honesty about his struggles off the pitch.
We’d love nothing more than to see him make good on his stated ambition to push for England’s 2026 World Cup squad, much as that looks less likely with each passing month he spends without a club.
Dele’s problems didn’t start with Turkey, given his waning form at Tottenham and failure to rekindle his career at Everton. But a disastrous loan spell at Besiktas in 2022-23, in which he was booed by the fans and savaged by the club president, obviously wasn’t good for him.
It’s now almost two years since the 28-year-old featured professionally in any game.
Jonjo Shelvey
Over the years, Shelvey has represented a range of big clubs, from Liverpool to Newcastle United to Nottingham Forest, but never a Yorkshire club – until he joined Eyupspor. Ahem.
The 32-year-old’s career had admitted already stagnated somewhat before he went to Turkey (no hair transplant jokes, please), having fallen out of favour at Newcastle United following their post-takeover midfield rebuild.
Moving to Nottingham Forest during their Todd Boehly tribute act years didn’t have the desired effect.
Shelvey fell off the mainstream football radar completely when he joined Super Lig outfit Caykur Rizespor on a free transfer in September 2023. He actually featured fairly regularly for the club in a forgettable midtable campaign but subsequently departed them for Eyupspor at the end of the season.
The newly-promoted side, coached by Arda Turan, are actually riding high in the Super Lig. They’re fourth in the table at the time of writing, but Shelvey struggled for opportunities and he was recently released by the club.
Championship promotion-chasers Burnley are reportedly interested in his services. Is a late-career resurgence on the cards?
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Still Arsenal’s record sale. That’s a bit mad, isn’t it?
Oxlade-Chamberlain looked well worth the money in his early days with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, rubbing salt into the Gunners’ wounds as they took their regular place in the top four.
Injuries dimmed his influence over time, but he did make 30 appearances in the Reds’ Premier League-winning campaign in 2019-20.
By the time of his 2023 departure, though, he’d very much become a fringe player. Twenty-nine when he was released, the midfielder still had time on his side to rebuild his career elsewhere.
Unfortunately, Oxlade-Chamberlain hasn’t quite been able to do that at Besiktas.
He started less than a third of their matches last season as they finished a distant sixth, a mammoth 46 points behind their Istanbul rivals Galatarasay, and has just one Super Lig start under his belt in 2024-25 so far.
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Andros Townsend
Completely our streak of England internationals from the days of yore, Townsend only recently moved to Turkey.
As with his aforementioned compatriots, it would probably be safe to conclude that a career on the wane was a cause for – or symptom of – his move to Antalyaspor.
But he actually did well to recover and feature prominently for a plucky Luton Town side last season after a horror ACL injury brought a sad end to his time at Everton.
We can only applaud Townsend for testing himself in a new environment at the age of 33 when he’d have surely had offers from clubs in the Football League, especially when a few weeks of Antalyaspor’s transfer embargo registration issues left his career in limbo.
Bruma
In fairness, moving to Turkey didn’t do Bruma’s career much damage the first time around.
Touted as “the next Cristiano Ronaldo” when he was a youngster, Bruma joined Galatasaray from Sporting for a €10million fee back in 2013.
There, he won the Turkish Super Lig title and two Turkish Cups before signing for RB Leipzig and briefly becoming one of European football’s dribble kings.
It was the Portuguese winger’s return to the Super Lig, to Galatasaray’s hated rivals Fenerbahce, where things dipped a bit. He made just five appearances on loan from PSV in 2022-23 and a grand total of zero after joining the club permanently.
To be fair, he’s kicked on admirably back at Braga since then, winning the Portuguese League Cup last term and hitting double figures in back-to-back campaigns.
But unless you’re an avid follower of the Portuguese top flight, chances are this is one former wonderkid you’ll have forgotten all about.
Adem Ljajic
Famous for ‘signing’ with Manchester United back in 2009 – even going as far as being pictured holding the famous shirt alongside Sir Alex Ferguson – Ljajic’s dream move to Old Trafford from Partizan never actually materialised due to work permit issues.
The midfielder bounced back from that setback to enjoy a decent career in the 2010s, a stalwart for the Serbia national team that represented them at the 2018 World Cup.
He scored 45 goals and made over 200 appearances in the Serie A for Fiorentina, Roma, Inter and Torino, during which time he was frequently linked with a move to the Premier League.
It would be fair to say that he’s dropped off most people’s radars since he signed for Besiktas in 2018. He did help them win the Super Lig in the Covid-hit 2020-21 campaign, but he has since moved on to Fatih Karagumruk.
Ljajic is still only 33 but he hasn’t been capped by Serbia in four years and has been turning out in his home country for Novi Pazar over the past couple of seasons.