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January transfer window closes for Turkish clubs
- Published: February 1, 2019
The January transfer window has come and gone and clubs are now fully focused on making the most of their signings in the second half of the season.
The January transfer window for the 2018/2019 season of the Turkish Super Lig closed at midnight on Thursday January 31. In typical Turkish football fashion, the Big Three (Galasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas) waited until the final days of the month to make the bulk of their signings.
While some clubs managed to bring in as many as 12 players (Ankaragucu), some failed to make any signings due to a transfer ban imposed on them (Kayserispor, Trabzonspor, Bursaspor).
The most active club
Ankaragucu had the busiest transfer window as they made the most signings this month. The Super Lig outfit managed to sign a total of 12 players.
The most expensive transfer
The highest fee spent on a player this month was by Galatasaray who paid a cool €10 million to land the league’s top scorer this season, Mbaye Diagne from Kasimpasa. That fee could go up as high as almost €13 million if they manage to win the league title this season.
Featured transfers
Unsurprisingly, the clubs that made the most well-known transfers were the league’s biggest clubs.
Galatasaray – Mbaye Diagne, Kostas Mitroglou
Fenerbahce – Victor Moses, Serdar Aziz, Tolgay Arslan
Besiktas – Burak Yilmaz, Shinji Kagawa
Istanbul Basaksehir – Robinho, Demba Ba
There were a few high-profile departures as well, however.
Besiktas – Pepe, Ryan Babel, Vagner Love
Galatasaray – Garry Rodrigues
Galatasaray spent and earned the most in January as they looked to strengthen their squad for the second half of the season in order to mount a serious title challenge.
The club sold their academy product, Ozan Kabak, to VfB Stuttgart for €11 million, the highest they have received for an 18-year-old player.
They didn’t keep the money for long, however, as they splashed €10 million to land in-form striker Mbaye Diagne from Kasimpasa on the final day of the transfer window.
In total, The Lions earned €22.3 million and spent €17 million in January.
Here is a full breakdown of the each team’s transfer activity:
