Why can’t Türkiye achieve success in football?

Football is one of the most popular sports in the world. It can be said that the most popular sport in Türkiye is football. So much so that football is an important component of the daily life of millions of people in our country. On the other hand, Turkey is a country that devotes significant economic resources to football on the professional side of the business. In short, Turkey has everything it needs to become a football nation: interest in football, a young and bustling population, and economic resources. So why does Türkiye not succeed in football?

This question came to mind with the words of Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic in the press conference before the match of our national football team against Croatia. After Dalic’s remarks about Turkey’s football success, or rather its failure, we lost 2-0 to Croatia. In other words, the question “Why isn’t Turkey succeeding in football?” is one of the questions that we need to find an answer to as quickly as possible. Mehmet Altunkiliş was interviewed by sports commentator Haldon Domak for The Independent Turk. Let’s look at the details together.

Turkey, which is in Group D of the Euro 2024 qualifiers, recently hosted Croatia in Bursa.

The team that emerged victorious in the tough match was Croatia, third in the last world. After the defeat against the Croats, many football fans reacted to TFF and national team coach Stefan Kuntz. The Croatian defeat brought to mind once again why Turkey is so unsuccessful in football. But before asking this question, the words of Croatian coach Zlatko Dalic stood out at the press conference.

Dalic gave a harsh answer to a question intended to criticize Croatia’s senior staff, and summed up the situation in Turkish football.

When the Croatian coach was asked at the press conference, “It is very difficult to generate new players. We are a country of 3.5 million, you are 80 million. It’s easy for you to find new players, but in a country of 3.5 million people, it’s a little more difficult to find good players at any given time. In this direction, we will gradually renew our team. Bursa is a city of 3 million people, we as a state have 3.5 million people. We finished third in the World Cup. Ask yourself how we areHe replied on form. Dalic’s response made it clear that we could not achieve the success we wanted in football.

Turkey did not participate in any World Cup finals after the 2002 tournament, where it finished in third place.

Although we were relatively successful in the European Championships, we completed the last tournament in 2020 without points. However, Croatia, whose staff is considered old according to some of our sports correspondents, managed to reach the final of the 2018 World Cup. But why does Turkey not succeed in football despite its young and busy population?

Sports commentator Haldon Domak says that Turkey is similar to Germany in terms of population, but we cannot train football players like the Germans.

On the subject, Dumac said:The country of 80 million people is equivalent to Germany in terms of population, but we cannot produce as many footballers as Germany.He uses expressions.

According to Domak, one of the reasons for Turkey’s failure in football is the lack of interest in infrastructures.

Moreover, Turkey has the opportunity to take advantage of countries like Germany and the Netherlands in terms of pool of players. On the subject, Domash said:We have such an opportunity, but despite this, we cannot create a structure that can always fight in international organizations that can be considered sufficiently strong. There are many reasons for this. We do not show the necessary care in the infrastructures. The technical worker in the superstructure works with 1 million euros and 10 thousand liras in the infrastructure. This system causes things to go completely wrong. In other words, you give a salary of 10 thousand liras to the person you say “taking talents worth 5-10 million euros”. Secondly, you are not giving enough support to the talented players out there. That is why, even if you have 180m and not 80m, you have to act in a way that depends on the chance of the number of players you are going to train.using expressions.

Domak says there is no problem with the talents of young footballers in Turkey, but we have not been successful because we cannot identify and use those talents properly.

On the other hand, Domash says that despite our large population, it is remarkable that there are many internationally talented players in our country. Haldon Dumash said on this subject:You look at Umet’s national team, and most of the players are from abroad. It’s really great that there are so many foreign players in a country of 80 million people. It is open to anyone who wants to play for the national team, but I must say that we have such a disadvantage. uses expressions.

Another reason for failure is the lack of perfect team structure and understanding of the game.

According to Domash, the most important reason for the occurrence of this situation is the frequent training changes in our country. Accordingly, it is very difficult for Turkey to develop a stable and definite understanding of football.

Domac on the subject”We don’t have an understanding of the game, and we don’t have a perfect formation structure. One day we play a trio, but we move on to a quartet. Looking at Croatia, when they played in the 2018 World Cup final, the players who played were Modric, Brozovic, Perisic, Kramaric, the players who played here. Changes are not made very quickly. There is the fact that countries like Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia have an infrastructure called the Yugoslav system. We do not have such a system.“It is clear.

According to Domak, Türkiye is also having problems acquiring young players.

Domac says that young players in important footballing countries in Europe have a chance to form more easily. Unfortunately, the situation is the opposite in Türkiye. In other words, when Turkey discovers talented players, it has serious problems getting these players into the system and making the use of these players a habit. Domac says this is one of the most important differences between Türkiye and Europe.

An experienced sports commentator expressed his views on this matter:We do not use Arda Güler. Yasin is the left back for Kasımpaşa and plays for the U17 national team. The 18-year-old Liverpool midfielder plays in the Champions League, and the 18th player in Barcelona plays the World Cup. A team named Gent will come in, the 17-year-old in the left gap. We look at those now, and then we don’t play with our players. We don’t have a chance to win the player we haven’t played. Unfortunately, we are not where we want to be. “You are 80 million, but you cannot properly manage your population and energy,” Dalic says, and I think he is right from earth to heaven.He expresses it in his own words.

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