Why did Yusuf Akçiçek leave Galatasaray?

Yusuf Akçiçek began his football career at the age of 10 in the Galatasaray youth academy. He moved to the Fenerbahçe youth academy when he was 13.

Galatasaray Board of Trustees member Can Çobanoğlu, in his speech, stated that after Yusuf Akçiçek showed a good performance at Fenerbahçe, "Yusuf's father, thinking that commuting to training was difficult because their home was on the Anatolian side, was in the process of trying to move to the European side and looking for a place, and at that very moment, Yusuf Akçiçek's relationship with the club was severed."

Former Fenerbahçe head scout Serhat Pekmezci described the young player's move to Fenerbahçe on the HT Spor channel with these words:

"One day, a relative of Yusuf called me. I said very positive things about Yusuf. I said that he was very promising and could even reach the A National Team wearing a Galatasaray jersey. Then he laughed and said that he had left Galatasaray. He said, 'If you want to evaluate him, we want to bring him,' and I was surprised."

"After doing a little research and learning that he had indeed left Galatasaray, I immediately reported it to the higher unit. Following that, we brought the player to Fenerbahçe. He was in a growth phase at that time, and his coordination was poor. After a while, he played in all of Fenerbahçe's categories, including the U14 team."

"It did not surprise me that he reached this level. He is a quality player with goals, who is very hardworking, has character, comes from a good family, and has high focus skills."