Striking statement from Ersun Yanal on Turkish football: 'First, you need to fix Turkey'

Manager Ersun Yanal shared his thoughts on solving the problems in Turkish football. Yanal said, “To fix Turkish football, you first need to fix Turkey. We have normalized polarization and chaos. We are managing a system of disorder. The game is chaos, the result is chaos, the audience is chaos—chaos, chaos, chaos!”

Manager Ersun Yanal, who recently parted ways with Amedspor, made striking statements regarding his career and the trajectory of Turkish football.

"THE PASSION OF THE MANAGER WAS GREATER"

Speaking to Zeynep Bilgehan from Hürriyet, Yanal said regarding his start in management, “Playing football was nice, but it didn't give me pleasure; the passion and satisfaction of the manager were greater. I wanted to be a coach from the age of 17. Throughout university, I coached youth teams with children.”

"I DREAMED OF A SCIENTIFICALLY GROUNDED FOOTBALL"

Discussing his years of coaching education, Yanal stated, “Our professors were very visionary people. Professors would come to teach anatomy, psychology, and physiology. There was a perception in society that ‘football is a waste of time.’ My dream was to create a football with a scientific foundation. My father being an electrician and living in a factory also contributed greatly to this; there is no ‘oops’ in a factory. I was interested in science classes in high school. I always based my coaching ideal on this scientific perspective.”

"PLAYERS WOULD ASK, ‘AM I CRAZY, WHY ARE YOU BRINGING A PSYCHOLOGIST?’"

Explaining that his “scientific football” approach was initially met with skepticism, Yanal said, “At Denizlispor, I would have ‘isokinetic tests’ done. We had a dietitian and a psychologist. Players would ask, ‘Am I crazy, why are you bringing a psychologist?’ A footballer is not a machine or a commodity; they are human and have emotions. Even now, people say, ‘Ersun Hoca travels with his psychologist, does he have problems?’”

"FIRST, YOU NEED TO FIX TURKEY"

Answering the question, "If Turkish football were a team, how would you manage it?", Yanal said:

“To fix Turkish football, you first need to fix Turkey. We have normalized polarization and chaos. We are managing a system of disorder. The game is chaos, the result is chaos, the audience is chaos—chaos, chaos, chaos! Amateur teams have almost disappeared. We must invest in art, sports, and culture. As Atatürk said, a sound mind resides in a sound body.”