Arsenal transfer beckons for Fenerbahce star

Milan Keskin

Updated: 8 Nov 2023 19:32 GMT
3 min read

Ferdi Kadioglu has put himself in the spotlight for Arsenal.

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The Fenerbahce full-back has been a permanent fixture at the Turkish top club for several years and was previously on the radar of Ajax, for example. In 2018, Fenerbahce paid €1.4 million to Eredivisie side NEC Nijmegen for the former youth international of the Netherlands.

While Kadioglu still functioned as an attacking midfielder at NEC, the versatile Turkish international has since been converted into an attacking left-back at Fenerbahce - and with great success, too.

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The defender has played no fewer than 164 games for the Istanbul giants since his arrival in 2018 and has become an indispensable part of the starting line-up. It earned him a new contract last year, which commits him to the club until the summer of 2026.

Arsenal keen

However, it remains to be seen whether Kadioglu will serve out the remainder of his deal with the club. Arsenal's chief scout Romain Poirot attended the top match between Fenerbahce and Trabzonspor (2-3) last weekend.

According to the Turkish media, he was impressed by the Dutch-born wing-back. The chief scout would therefore have sent a positive signal to the Arsenal club management to work on the arrival of Kadioglu, though whether a move will materialise remains to be seen given that the Gunners are well-stocked in that department with Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jurrien Timber and Kieran Tierney, who is currently on loan at Real Sociedad.

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To wrest Kadioglu from Fenerbahce, Arsenal will have to open their wallets, however. Data from FootballTransfers shows that the full-back currently has an Estimated Transfer Value of €12.9 million.

That amount can only increase in the near future, as soon as Fenerbahce continue to play for the national title and continue to have a chance at Champions League football. Incredibly, the last time the Turkish giants were active in the group stage of the Champions League was 14 years ago.