Greetings from the great, old country of Turkey. I'm a big time fan of Fenerbahce SK and im pretty pleased with this latest move, though Fenerbahce seems the strongest in defence in Turkish league standards. Turkish international Demirel is a quality goalkeeper, Gonul is the best right-back of this country and Andre Santos occasionally plays for Brazil as a left back. Yobo and the Uruguay captain Lugano seem to make up a solid defensive backline as Yobo has what Lugano lacks; pace. The fact that he played in a quality Everton side for 8 consecutive years surely speaks for his quality. About how he might have been tempted for a move to Turkey, here is some facts and theories:
In his first interview to the Turkish press, Yobo reminded us a game I almost forgot. About 4 or 5 years ago Everton was our guest in Turkey for a pre-season friendly game. Yobo commented on the fans in the stadium that day, saying he hasn't yet forgotten the atmosphere in the stadium.
From all your posts, I get the feeling that Yobo's game has been mostly appreciated by fans. It should be a difficult task to ask such a player to wait for a first team chance in the bench. That's why I don't believe Moyes was left with much choices when Yobo told him he wants to play or leave. It's not like he's 35 years old, he still has a couple of years ahead to play quality football. Another thing that might have tempted him is that the stars of the previous generation of Nigeria such as Jay Jay Okocha and Uche played for Fenerbahce for some long years.
And an interesting detail: Our vice captain Emre Belozoglu was accused of racist behaviour against Yobo when he was playing for Newcastle. In the discipline commitee it was Yobo's report that cleared Emre's reputation. When asked about that event today, Yobo sticked to his first comments, and said he and Emre are good friends. Just to make things clear, it is worth noting that Turkish football history had few events involving racism. In the Kevin Campbell case, Trabzonspor chairman was just trying to be funny but if you're an idiot, crossing the line is just a matter of seconds. (For those who are curious, Chairman Sahin commented "We purchased our cannibal player as a goal scoring machine but he turned out to be a washing machine") How pathetic. Yet, besides this unfortunate event I remember no other bad memories. If there's anything as racism in Turkey non-caucasians are last to be targeted. Maybe against Greeks and Aermanians but still I wouldn't call that racism, it doesn't go that far; it's just rivalry with some nationalits feelings in it
A Fenerbahçe fan reported from Ankara, Turkey. Back to you, glorious fans of Everton.
