From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Galatasaray people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match22 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Trabzonspor for Roland Sallai was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Noa Lang and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Galatasaray have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Erdem Gunok could afford to be generous.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market17 Aug 2026
Olympique Lyonnais paid $23.8M and Galatasaray took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market17 Aug 2026
Fortuna Düsseldorf pay $14.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
7.35, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
1 academy graduates step up at Galatasaray
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Noa Lang and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. El Chadaille Bitshiabu has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Halil Unal is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympique Lyonnais waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Galatasaray is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market10 Aug 2026
Schalke 04 come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Galatasaray did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Galatasaray asked and Trabzonspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
Galatasaray sell a favourite for $45.6M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Victor Osimhen was one of the reasons people came, and $45.6M does not replace that by itself.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Galatasaray heard it as anything else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rafael Leão and Galatasaray agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Leroy Sané and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
No hiding place for Deniz Gül
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Deniz Gül, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Leicester City for Victor Osimhen was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market3 Aug 2026
Victor Osimhen wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Galatasaray hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Galatasaray can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Galatasaray have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Victor Osimhen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” İlkay Gündoğan and Galatasaray agree another 1 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“82 caps was 82 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 35 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Galatasaray.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Barış Alper Yılmaz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Lucas Torreira wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Galatasaray have no good answer.