Arda Turan’s struggles and triumphs at F.C. Barcelona
A star signing which never quite worked out.
Arda Turan has put an end to his career at the age of 35, after a last few years in which his personal life predominated over his football, for the wrong reasons.
But before the downfall, Arda was regarded as one of the best non-Spanish players in LaLiga, particularly during his wonderful tenure at Atlético de Madrid where he helped his club win domestic competitions and reach two UCL finals.
Although this article intends to look into his controversial years at F.C. Barcelona. Was he as bad as some say? Could he have done more to succeed? Where did it go wrong?
Arda arrived in the summer of 2015 for 34 million euros with 7 million add-ons. Barça’s fourth most expensive signing ever, at the time. An(other) irregular move orchestrated by Josep María Bartomeu given he pushed for his signing while club elections were taking place, so he technically wasn’t the president at the time.
The main issue though, was that the Turkish superstar would have to wait 6 months before making his debut due to a transfer ban imposed by FIFA on Barça. The lack of competitive gameplay definitely took its toll on the player, likely affecting his physical attributes. In relation to this, another inconvenience in Arda’s adaptation was where he was coming from. At Atlético de Madrid he was required to run, to press, to defend, to be aggressive, whereas at Barça he convinced himself he didn’t need to focus as much on those aspects of the game, but rather on the ball. Which proved to be a bad idea and led to a discrete first half-a-season at the club.
The following summer, under normal circumstances, Arda cut his holidays short to prepare himself for the new season and to prove he could provide so much more. The impact was immediate with 3 goals and 3 assists in the first 4 games of the 16/17 campaign. Partly because he was starting in a more natural position as a winger while Neymar was playing for Brazil, the Olympic Games hosts.
But that didn’t last long and Luis Enrique would end up pushing Arda back to the midfield, in a more central role, where he never really felt too comfortable. Once that happened, he began to lose protagonism, yet he always seemed to do his part when required, with 11 goals and 6 assists in 19 matches by the end of December.
Despite the effort, many fans blamed him for a 1-1 home draw against Real Madrid in mid November, after an unnecessary foul on Luka Modric in the dying minutes of the game which resulted in a late Sergio Ramos equaliser for the visitors. The whole team was back defending, with Piqué and Mascherano tripping over and Sergi Roberto breaking the offside trap. But that didn’t matter, Arda was the easy target.
Thanks to his personality he overcame the criticism and scored a hattrick, including an assist, in the Champions League the following game, becoming the 6th Barça player to ever do so. Two weeks later he repeated the same formula, this time with a perfect hattrick (head, left foot and right foot) in the Copa del Rey.
But in 2017 things went downhill from February onward due to an adductor injury, having a relapse in late March while away with Turkey. After recovering he was relegated to the bench and only took part in 1 of the 7 matches left that season.
Barça did win the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Supercup but the mood wasn’t great at the Camp Nou after just missing out on LaLiga and seeing how easily Juventus dispatched Barça from the UCL. With Lucho on the verge of leaving, the fans and club had “changes” in mind which included Arda Turan, despite completing his best personal season ever in terms of numbers, with 13 goals and 6 assists.
With Ernesto Valverde on board and knowing the new manager had no intention of playing him, Arda resisted to leave in summer and tried to win him over. But it didn’t work. Not a single minute was handed to Arda, even after Neymar left to PSG. Months later, Arda was gone for good.
Arriving at Barça was a dream come true for the Turkish magician yet he never found the stability and trust required to succeed, neither from Lucho or Valverde, and competition was fierce at the club. A very different ecosystem to the one he enjoyed in Madrid, where he was constantly praised on and off the field, giving rise to the ‘Ardaturanismo’ phenomenon which never really stuck in Barcelona.