Turkish footballer Arda Turan, a former player for Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, among others, announced his retirement from professional football on Monday in a video posted on social networks that reviews his career.
Turan, born in Istanbul 35 years ago, grew up in the Galatasaray sports academy, the same club with which he ended his career after passing through the Turkish Manisaspor, Atlético, Barça and Basaksehir, also from Istanbul.
In his video he highlights the influence of Galatasaray and especially that of the already legendary coach Fatih Terim on his career, but he also reviews his Spanish days. "I wanted to go abroad to earn money. Atlético signed me despite being injured and unable to play. They were very good years. In the first season with Atlético we won the UEFA Cup," recalls the player in the video.
He says that when he began to live in Madrid he received "a lot of advice", such as that of some who suggested he lead a life "like a star". "That did not hit me at all. I opened doors and opened my mind," she reflects. "With Atlético I lived everything. I think we won one of the most difficult championships in the history of football. We competed with the best clubs in the world in what is perhaps the toughest competition in the world and we were champions," he adds.
But not all were triumphs. "In my life I have lost two finals", the 2014 Champions League final match and before that the final high school exam. They both made me very sad and I cried a lot," he confessed.
Regarding Barcelona, he says that it is an "excellent club, with an unrivaled culture", citing especially "Andrés (Iniesta), Messi and Gerard Pique", and is sure that it would be difficult for him to reject an offer from that team. "I had a great time at Barcelona. I scored goals, we won the Cup. We played alongside the greatest leaders of all time," he sums up.
"I'm sure of one thing: Luis Enrique, along with Fatih Terim and Diego Simeone, has changed my vision of football. He became someone I love very much for opening me up to totally different ideas, both playing and thinking about the game", recalls Turan. .
He then tries to explain his decision to return to Turkey, where he played for a year and a half for Basaksehir, a successful Istanbul club with few fans in the city. "Leaving Barcelona of your own free will may be a marginal idea for a footballer, but I couldn't play, and I couldn't accept that," he says.
"Life stopped being just football: I got married and had two children," concludes the player, quickly going over his last four years of career, in which he returned to Galatasaray and ended up appearing in the press more because of a confrontation in a disco, pistol shot included, than for his goals.
Turan's farewell video ends with the footballer taking his training shoes to the garden of his house, where he hands them to his children before concluding: "The game continues."
