Manchester United and Manchester City have both been keeping close tabs on Freiburg star Caglar Soyuncu a source close to the player revealed to Turkish-Football.com but just who is the 20-year-old defender making a name for himself in the Bundesliga?
See More: For all Caglar Soyuncu news and everything else you wanted to know about the Turkish football star
Soyuncu first made a name for himself at Altinordu, joining the Izmir based outfit aged 10 and rising through the youth ranks of the most exciting youth academies in Turkey.
Altinordu have already started exporting talent. Nineteen-year-old Cengiz Under joined Basaksehir on a £600,000 move over the summer and has already established himself as one of the transfers of the season for the surprise title challengers. Soyuncu was the other major talent to be snapped up over the summer.
Freiburg shelled out £2 million for the 20-year-old defender, bringing him in on a five-year deal. The young centre-back has already broke into the first-team and has made 16 appearances in the Bundesliga, playing a total of 1396 minutes of top-tier football.
Soyuncu has played 90 minutes in every league game he has featured in this season since 16 September 2016.
The young defender’s footballing idol is Barcelona legend Carles Puyol. Like the former Spanish international, Soyuncu possesses leadership skills, is a tough tackler, strong in the air but also an impressive dribbler.
Soyuncu started football as a striker which may explain why he is so confident on the ball. The young defender is not afraid to pass to ball out of defence or lead counter attacks with penetrating forward runs.
The Turkish international defender already has two caps for his country and has grown into his role in Freiburg as the season has progressed. Soyuncu was awarded the Man of the Match award recently following the 2-1 victory over Hertha Berlin.
City are no strangers to the talent emerging from Turkey. The Citizens snapped up Enes Unal when he was just 18 from Bursaspor. The Johnny Depp lookalike who has been described as a young version of Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been lighting up the Eredivisie where he already has 11 goals playing on loan for FC Twente. Soyuncu would also be joining Ilkay Gundogan who is of Turkish origin and fluent in the language.
United meanwhile have never had a Turkish first-team player however, Jose Mourinho has a history of working with Turks. The Portuguese manager brought in Mesut Ozil, Hamit Altintop and Nuri Sahin to Real Madrid during his time in charge of the Spanish giants.
Soyuncu is undoubtedly one of the most exciting talents to emerge from the Turkish league in recent years and a player worth keeping a close eye on as he is a name we will be hearing a lot more of come the end of the season.
