Foreign players have a difficult time coping in Turkey, but U.S. goalkeeper Brad Friedel is determined to persevere.
U.S. national team goalkeeper Brad Friedel thinks he’s got what it takes to survive in the Turkish league.
His club, Galatasaray, has already bid adieu to two foreign imports this season. Englishman Mike Marsh barely lasted a month while his compatriot Barry Venison left after eight weeks. Now Besiktas goalkeeper Raimond Aumann looks set to pack his bags and return to Germany.
“It was hard watching it happen,” said Friedel. “Venison and I got along very well at Newcastle together, but he had a lot of off-the-field battles that were unwinnable.”
Friedel signed with Newcastle for the 1994-95 season, but never received a work permit, a situation that repeated itself when Friedel signed with Sunderland last summer.
The last work permit denial led to Friedel’s move to Turkey, where foreign stars have been running into trouble.
Marsh’s move to Southend made room for Friedel at Galatasaray. Venison, who was involved in a much-publicized drinking session with Marsh, moved to Southampton. Their off-field behavior clashed with the strict social codes of predominantly Moslem Turkey.
Other foreign stars, like Aumann, are finding Turkish fans have little patience for on-field lapses. The former Bayern Munich star is being forced out because of poor form. Fans and the press haven’t forgiven his 3-0 home loss to Norway’s Rosenborg, which cost the club a place in the prestigious and lucrative Champions’ League .
“The Besiktas fans are starting to dislike him and they have the say in everything over here,” Friedel said. “If they want you out, they’ll get you out. If they want you to play, you’ll play.”
Friedel isn’t worried about his Galatasaray fans turning on him. After the 3-0 home win over Karsiyaka Oct. 28 for his third shutout since his arrival, he’s become a hero.
In the United States, unless you’re Alexi Lalas or Cobi Jones, people don’t generally recognize soccer players. But in Istanbul if Friedel walks into a store, everybody knows who he is.
“If they’re a Galatasaray fan they give me a discount, if they support another club they charge me double,” he joked.
Sometimes it’s better not to be recognized, especially after a 3-1 loss to Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira’s Fenerbahce Oct. 22.
“I was expecting the reaction to be worse, but I did get slapped in the face by a diehard Galatasaray fan,” he said. “It wasn’t hard, more a next-time-you-gotta-win kind of thing.”
The Istanbul derbies are so popular that more than 10,000 fans arrive at noon for the 7 p.m. kickoff. By 2 p.m. the stadium’s three-quarters full and there are as many fans outside the stadium as inside. They try to scare or intimidate opposing players with signs like “Welcome to Hell!”
But the crowds tend to direct their violence against their own team. Friedel learned this in his third game at home against Samsun.
His team was up a man but nevertheless struggling. As the game went on the spectators jeered and threw anything they could at their own players near the sidelines chanting “Hit him! Hit him!” Galatasaray finally scored the game winner in the last minute.
‘Noisier than World Cup’
“The crowd made more noise than 100,000 in the Rose Bowl against Colombia [during the World Cup],” Friedel said. “Ninety minutes long they wanted to crucify us, then all of a sudden we’re instant heroes.”
Galatasaray’s 34,000-seat stadium lies in the center of Istanbul. Besiktas’ 38,000 capacity stands to the west. Fenerbahce’s 40,000-seater is on the Asia side of Istanbul near the Mehmetbey Fatih bridge, considered to be the gateway to Europe.
“If our stadium held 120,000 it would be full,” Friedel said. “There are people on the rooftops, outside the stadium, everywhere — it’s crazy.”
The standard of living in Turkey is much higher than Friedel had expected. Two visits to Saudi Arabia with the national team familiarized him to the Moslem lifestyle, but Istanbul is very western in comparison.
“Life here is very easy to adapt to,” he said. “Americans can live here very easily and comfortably. The dollar goes a long way in Turkey.”
For Friedel the biggest difference is the mentality. He believes that in Turkey, if you have an organized team, you can win the championship.
Friedel spends most of his social time with fitness coach Phil Desmond, Welsh teammate Dean Saunders and Scottish coach Graeme Souness.
Society does not accept Turkish players going out or drinking socially. They expect the English players to go out carousing, but when they do, they’re subject to close scrutiny.
“They accept our culture as long as we respect theirs,” Friedel explained. “When we go out we have to be careful. We have to be professional.”
For now Friedel will continue to concentrate on his game and enjoy his new lifestyle.
“I like it when it’s 100 percent Turkish — no American anything,” he said.
by Soccer America correspondent Jerry Hawkins