Arsenal, Man City & Man Utd are queueing for the Turkish delight set to dominate Euro 2024

Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United are already queuing for the Turkish delight who could enjoy a breakout tournament at Euro 2024.

The last summer was full of people learning how to behave outdoors again, pushing newfound alcohol tolerance to its limit and incorrectly predicting that Turkey would surprise all and win the lot.

We’d like to offer our condolences at this time to the England fans who also had Turkey down as dark horses, suffering an agonising double dose of footballing disappointment in the process, fuelled by heartbreak, agendas being crushed and bets falling down the drain.

Fear not, though, for we at Planet Football come bearing excellent news for the cropped trouser-wearing, IPA-glugging, tote-bag-collecting football fans among us who made Turkey going deep at Euro 2020 our main personality trait.

They’re back for round two at Euro 2024 and this time they actually mean business. Even football nerds will agree. If we could use a Venn diagram to illustrate it, you’d see exactly how the stars are aligning for the various genres of football hipster.

We don’t need a Venn diagram, though, because instead Semih Kilicsoy and his pals who complete a budding golden generation are all you need to know about to be convinced of Turkey’s dark horse credentials this summer.

Kilicsoy is the main focus, though, and for good reason.

Obvious hyperbole about Turkey’s Euro 2024 chances aside, they head to the tournament boasting the very definition of a hidden gem in the 18-year-old winger, whose form in his breakthrough season at Fenerbahce is prompting interest from Manchester United, according to one report from Attacking Football.

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They state that United have joined a queue including the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal for Kilicsoy, with all three clubs monitoring his progress closely.

Born on Istanbul’s European side in a working-class district in 2005, Kilicsoy has represented Turkey’s national team right through from under-14 level and already has two caps to his name as a senior, despite not turning 19 until August.

The bulk of his youth and budding senior career to date has been spent in Istanbul with Besiktas, making his senior bow for the club at the beginning of 2023 and never looking back.

A versatile forward, Kilicsoy played his best football in central zones at youth level, but has impressed even more with a shift to the right flank.

Goal scoring has been the sexiest part of his game to date and the stats – which are rather outrageous – naturally are what he lives and dies by, but it’s Kilicsoy’s consistently devastating playmaking across the width of the final third which makes him such a glorious threat, no matter the opposition.

We could bore you with the stereotypical, over-edited YouTube compilation, but there’s no need to bother.

Euro 2024 is right around the corner and with him scoring goals like this one for Besiktas all season long, we’re backing the 18-year-old to get aboard the showboat in Germany.

Semih Kılıçsoy. 💫#BJKvKFT | #UECLpic.twitter.com/S01FkqUAr6

— Beşiktaş JK (@Besiktas) July 27, 2023

He’s bridging the gap between nerds, hipsters and purists one golazo at a time. That alone shows just how nauseatingly high his potential is.

Kilicsoy pairs up sublime balance and a freakish double-footedness with the most important trait of all – the ‘f*ck it’ personality.

Like a prime Stone Cold Steve Austin, nobody is stopping this Turkish terror from turning up, causing havoc and getting fans off their seats with an almighty ‘hell yeah’.

Impressing under the bright lights that come with tournament football is a huge challenge for anyone, let alone an 18-year-old who already seems to be shouldering the hopes of a nation.

But with 12 goals and three assists from 35 games this season and his fellow rising baller pals Arda Guler and Kenan Yildiz alongside him to supply, we’re backing Kilicsoy to steal the show this summer.

It sounds like a lot of pressure, but it all feels meant to be for a baller who’s taken to the art of goal-getting as he has with such a natural poise when driving at opposition defences. His playmaking is off the charts.

There’s a Turkish takeover on the horizon and Kilicsoy could well be at the centre of it, dropping his shoulder, slipping the ball into gaps that don’t yet exist or rifling them beyond the goalkeeper himself.

By Mitch Wilks