The Turkish Super Lig vs U23 players: Who is breaking through?

Felix Morson-Pate investigates why so few young players get their chance in the Turkish top flight, and analyses some of those who have made it

The Super Lig returned last month to the delight of many, myself included. It was a very busy window for both incomings and outgoings within the league as a whole including a frantic deadline day last Friday, with many squads looking refreshed down the stretch.

An area I’d like to focus for this article is the amount of playing time given to younger players.

Turkish football is generally stereotyped and lumped in alongside leagues such as Saudi Arabia, China and Russia (as evidenced by all the recent Jhon Duran chat) as a big money retirement league so it made sense to test that theory.

It’s also highly likely to be the lowest priority Band 2 league for most clubs, with that age factor probably being a big driver in that. So, with all teams having played 21/34 games this season, I’ve taken a look at which clubs have given the highest proportion of minutes to players born on or after 1/1/2002 (and would therefore be classed as u23 for this season), and which player in each side has contributed most to those u23 minutes.