Turkish football transfers used to be more of a punchline than a big news story.

Player X is having a shocker today, he'll be off to Turkey soon, etc. From Darius Vassell to Jonjo Shelvey and Danny Drinkwater at one end of the market, to Roberto Carlos and Robin van Persie at the other, the Turkish league was a place where footballers were put out to pasture.

At the same time, their bank balances and/or retirement funds would usually have been generously bolstered. Competitive wages have generally not been a problem for Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and, to a lesser extent, Besiktas - Turkey's big three, all based in Istanbul, the country's biggest city.

But now something different is happening.

In the summer 2025 transfer window, the Turkish Super Lig registered the third-highest net transf

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