Vancouver: All it took was one touch.
In the opening match of the Serie A season just gone, Alessandro Circati and Parma had gallantly absorbed everything Juventus had thrown at them for nearly 60 minutes.
Then Kenan Yildiz, their 21-year-old Turkish superstar, received the ball on the left wing. To that point, he had been probing and probing for an opening unsuccessfully – until, suddenly, he conjured one out of nowhere, in the way that magicians do.
With a perfectly weighted jink of his right boot, Yildiz found space outside his marker and whipped the ball into the six-yard box. Circati was there, but rendered utterly helpless as Jonathan David, the player he was guarding, side-footed it in; there’s not much you can do, really, when your opponent has a goal served to them on a silver platter.
Twenty minutes later, as Parma chased an equaliser, Juve broke away on the counter-attack. Yildiz pulled the strings again, measuring the ideal final pass for Dusan Vlahovic to ghost past Circati and wrap up a 2-0 win.
Yildiz was named man of the match and, later, Serie A’s player of the month for August, kickstarting a dominant season in which he scored 11 goals himself, directly set up nine others, and created more chances (76) in the league than any player bar one.
“He’s an alien. He’s not a normal footballer,” said Juventus boss Luciano Spalletti earlier this season.
That he wears the iconic No.10 jersey at Juventus – historically reserved for the club’s most talismanic players, such as Alessandro Del Piero and Roberto Baggio – says it all about the lofty status he holds at Italy’s biggest club.
“He’s a great player. I just have to put it like that,” Circati said.
“His ability one-v-one, to get the ball, drive it … I mean, there’s a lot of great players, and he’s one of them. I versed him a few times now, and I think he’s Juventus’ best player, to be completely honest.”
Circati is among the few Socceroos with first-hand experience of how dangerous Yildiz can be, and how they can’t afford to let him breathe for even a second.
He also knows he’s only half the problem for Australia in their World Cup opener on Sunday (2pm AEST).
Turkey have had plenty of top players over the years, but few genuine global stars. Suddenly, two have emerged at once, and neither was born the last time they appeared at a World Cup in 2002.
The other is Arda Güler, also 21, and already at Real Madrid.
If Yildiz is the rock star of Turkish soccer – this month, he became the first man, and first player, to grace the cover of Vogue’s Turkish edition – then Güler is the golden boy. He is the country’s most recognisable athlete, with nearly 18 million followers on Instagram.
Güler and Yildiz are valued at a combined $300 million, and that number is a conservative estimate; according to Transfermarkt.com, they are the two most expensive Turkish players of all time. They’re a huge part of the reason why Turkish fans are so bullish about their chances, and why their players regard themselves as the “dark horses” of the tournament.
Like Yildiz, Güler plays with the sort of confidence usually reserved for players a decade older. But where Yildiz overwhelms opponents with power, pace and directness, Güler is an old-fashioned playmaker whose game is built on imagination. He sees passes that others don’t, or can’t.
Circati is yet to test his wits against him, but isn’t fazed by the prospect.
“In every single competition, in every single league, we see it … bigger-name players don’t always come out on top against better teams,” Circati said.
“Big players don’t make better teams.”
Güler is considered a certain starter- but there are question marks over Yildiz’s fitness after he injured his calf at training with Juventus, ruling him out their final game of the season.
Former Socceroos fitness boss Darren Burgess, nowadays the director of performance at Juventus, was there when it happened, and has personally worked with the Turkish national team’s staff to manage the injury, with the expectation that he would be fit to play in their first World Cup game.
After days of individual training, Yildiz has resumed work with the rest of the group, and was reportedly performing sprints on Saturday (AEST) in Vancouver.
Turkey coach Vincenzo Montella hinted in his pre-match press conference, in response to a question about Yildiz’s readiness to play, that he had “doubts” about some of his players, suggesting that the Juventus star might be used off the bench.
Even in that case, Burgess reckons they need to be wary.
Burgess has seen a lot – he’s also worked in the Premier League for Liverpool and Arsenal – but said he has never seen a player up close with Yildiz’s level of ball control and dribbling ability.
“He’s our superstar,” Burgess said.
“He’s the person that the fans and the players turn to, to produce something in tight games.
“He’s an impressive person, completely dedicated to becoming a truly great player. It’s for others to decide whether he’s there yet.”
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