A gala poster for the final sprint. The two leading teams in the Ligue 1 standings – Paris-Saint-Germain beat Lille on goal difference – face off on Saturday April 3 at 5 p.m. at the Parc des Princes for the 31ste football championship day. With 63 points, the Northerners have, in accounting terms, the best season in their history: they have five more points than on the same day during their last title of champion of France, in 2011. They owe it in part to their triplet of Turkish internationals, arrived gradually for three seasons.
This summer, the LOSC even went to collect the kral (“King”) of Istanbul football, Burak Yilmaz. The striker is a star in Turkey, as much adored as criticized according to his passages in the main clubs of the country, which are dedicated to a fierce rivalry. The captain of the selection reinforced this status during the international break, with four goals, including a hat-trick against the Netherlands (4-2).
Not sure, however, that LOSC coach Christophe Galtier is delighted: his 35-year-old player, who had just returned from a calf injury that kept him away from the field for two months, almost continued. all three international meetings over the past ten days. “ He is fine. But will he have enough freshness to play the whole game ? “, asked the Lille technician at a press conference on Friday, taking care not to indicate his presence or not in the starting lineup.
In 22 appearances this season in the Lille jersey, Burak Yilmaz has carved out a role of his own in the group. First thanks to his performance, with nine league goals. The Turk also impresses with his character on the pitch, haranguing his partners as much as he presses the opposing defenders.
Turkish players rarely venture beyond their borders
With his compatriots Yusuf Yazici and Zeki Celik, of whom he is almost ten years older, he behaves like a big brother. It is in particular the presence of these two players that convinced him to put his business in Lille in 2020, when he was free from any contract after his end of the season at Besiktas.
Lille-Turkey: during the last decade, transfers were rather in the opposite direction. From Moussa Sow to Fenerbahçe in 2012 to Ryan Mendes at Kayserispor in 2017, including defenders Aurélien Chedjou (2013, Galatasaray) and Simon Kjær (2015, Fenerbahçe), many Lille have found refuge on the Bosphorus.
Conversely, Turkish players rarely venture outside their borders. In Ligue 1, few are those who have left traces of their passage. The best known, Mevlüt Erding, twelve seasons in the elite including Sochaux or Paris-Saint-Germain, was born and raised in France. In Lille, the only precedent is the international striker Engin Verel, who spent two seasons in the North at the beginning of the 1980s. Even today, the International Center for Sports Studies only lists around twenty expatriate Turkish players. , against 900 French.
“In Turkey, everyone watches Lille”
“ It’s starting to change, nuance Ibrahim Alci, president of the Cultural and Worship Association of Northern Turks and who is in regular contact with Turkish players from Lille. Mircea Lucescu, Turkey’s previous manager from 2017 to 2019, had a lot of faith in the youngsters. They were more easily spotted abroad. ” Almost half of the players selected at the last meeting of the national team thus play outside Turkey.
LOSC was the fastest club to take advantage of it, thanks in particular to Luis Campos’ network. Sports advisor during the passage of Gérard Lopez to the presidency of the club (2017 to the end of 2020), the Portuguese, excellent recruiter, first managed to convince Zeki Celik in 2018. At 21, the defender had already been selected by Mircea Lucescu, but was still only playing in the second division.
In the summer of 2019, he was joined by Yusuf Yazici: to afford the striker, LOSC spent more than 16 million euros, which for a few days made him the most expensive transfer in the history of the club.
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Yusuf Yazici had a mixed first season, marked by a serious injury, before gaining momentum this year: author of 14 goals in all competitions, he is the club’s best director. He notably marked the spirits in the Europa League, with seven goals including a hat-trick in the prestigious victory at San Siro against AC Milan (3-0). What to strengthen the popularity of LOSC in his country. “In Turkey, everyone watches Lille. Sometimes I walk in the street and I hear people talking about Lille and its results ”, Mevlüt Erding told in November to France Football.
“Turkish players are used to playing in hot or even hostile atmospheres, derbies with a lot of pressure. They can be more armed than our young players on this aspect, it is precious “, argued Christophe Galtier at the end of last season. Faced with the challenge of the match on Saturday, his players have a new opportunity to prove it.