Arda Turan reveals he thought he was transferring to Bayern Munich back in 2015.

There are a lot of could’ve, should’ve, would’ve stories over the years from Bayern Munich’s transfer windows, but that wasn’t necessarily the case for Turkish international Arda Turan back in 2015. His story was a little bit different.

The attacking midfielder knew he was ready to make his move from Atletico Madrid that year, but per a new report from Az, he thought he was on his way to Bayern Munich, not Barcelona. On paper, Barcelona does look a logical next step from Atletico, but he said there was a lack of communication from his agent, and he was surprised when he found out he was moving to the Catalan giants instead of Bayern: “My agent - Ahmet Bulut - didn’t tell me that I was going to sign with Barça. I found out about the agreement 15 days later. I thought I was transferring to Bayern.”

Instead, Bayern went on to sign Arturo Vidal and Douglas Costa during that summer’s transfer window for a combined fee of around 68-million Euros. Both Vidal and Costa went on to have decent debut seasons for Bayern and had well decorated spells in Munich, but they’ve both since transferred away to other clubs (Barcelona, Juventus).

After such an impressive season with Atletico Madrid in the 2013/2014 campaign en route to the La Liga title, Turan was in high demand from a number of Europe’s top club’s, Bayern included. He scored 9 goals and provided 6 assists from 46 appearances across all competitions en route Atletico’s first La Liga title in 18 years and was one of the league’s standout performers.

Looking back on his time at Barcelona, Turan feels that Ernesto Valverde never gave him the proper playing time he deserved, especially after being 3rd in assists behind Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez in the 2016/2017 season: “I wasn’t sad to leave Barça. If I had failed, it might have been me, but Valverde didn’t give me a single minute of playing time. I was the one who provided the most assists after Messi and Suarez the year before.”

Photo by Burak Akbulut/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Turan was eventually loaned out to Turkish club Istanbul Başakşehir in the winter of 2018, but he hasn’t exactly covered himself in glory in the Turkish Süper Lig either. Later on that spring, towards the end of the season, Turan attacked a referee after a disagreement over a call that was made. He was banned 16 matches after official review by the Süper Lig’s professional football discipline board and his loan contract was dissolved. He is technically still under contract with Barcelona until July 1st of this year, but it remains to be seen where he could wind up going considering how much the coronavirus pandemic will be affecting the transfer window.

Photo by Arif Hudaverdi Yaman/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images