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#2 DeAndre Yedlin


Hayri Cund

www.espn.com

Why DeAndre Yedlin, USMNT star, is coming home

After almost a decade of playing in England and Turkey, USMNT defender DeAndre Yedlin is looking forward to the next phase of his career.
www.espn.com www.espn.com


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Yedlin spent much of Monday and Tuesday at Istanbul's airport, trying to get a flight out during an epic snowstorm that collapsed part of the roof of a cargo building. He was headed to Columbus, Ohio, where the USMNT is playing El Salvador tonight. He hung out in the lounge as the delays piled up. "On Monday, I think every flight got cancelled," he said. His ride home in the snow took five hours. He didn't get out until Wednesday, when the weather cleared.

His efforts to leave were symbolic. For the past few weeks, since Fatih Terim was fired as Galatasaray's manager at the start of the January window, Yedlin has been negotiating with several MLS clubs in an effort to get back to America. The process was tortuous. "There had been talks," Yedlin said. "You hear it around, what the options might be. But I've learned over the years that nothing's official until it's official."

As late as Sunday, he played for Galatasaray. After that game, in which Galatasaray conceded the losing goal in the 90th minute, the deal was completed to make him a free agent. That meant he was eligible to play in any country, but only one country made sense.


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"He's a good boy," Fatih Terim said. Terim was sitting on a couch in an office at the Galatasaray training ground in late December, talking about the back he'd signed a year before from Newcastle. "Sometimes he's very good as an attacking full-back. I say, 'Come on, DeAndre! Go! Go! Go!' I want him to go. And sometimes he goes."

Terim shrugged. "And sometimes he doesn't."

Terim is Turkey's most renowned football figure. He managed the only Turkish team to win a European trophy, Galatasaray's 2000 UEFA Cup champions. In 2008, he led Turkey to the Euro semifinals, losing on a late goal. He managed at Fiorentina and AC Milan, albeit briefly.

At Galatasaray, where he won eight Super Lig titles, Terim favored a dynamic style that includes mobile full-backs. Yedlin had been playing at Newcastle under Rafa Benitez, who used a measured approach to mitigate his team's lack of talent. Then Steve Bruce arrived and made Benitez look like Marcelo Bielsa. "In England, I played for Sam Allardyce, Rafa Benitez, and Steve Bruce," Yedlin said. "These are guys who like to sit back. If I wanted to play, I had to adapt my game. Of course, I tried to put a little flair into it when I could. But most of the time, I'm playing with teams that had 30 percent possession."

Still, Terim noticed him. "I don't listen to what anyone says," Terim said. "I just see what I see." Crucially, too, Terim had nobody else to play Yedlin's positon. One right-back had been seriously injured in a fireworks accident. The other had an ailing hamstring. Yedlin's price was right: no fee, a $2 million salary. "We wanted him," Terim said. "So he came here."

As currently constituted, Galatasaray is a curious blend. There are young Turkish players and local veterans, foreigners who have established a foothold in the country and others passing through. Mired in third place when Yedlin arrived last year, Galatasaray ended up winning its last six games and nearly edging Besiktas for the title. Over the summer, club president Burak Elmas asked several Americans he knew to help find a move for Yedlin, whom he deemed too expensive. Yedlin resisted -- he'd only been there a few months, the pandemic was raging, Rodriguez was primed to give birth. September came and there he was, starting at right-back.


Super Lig games were unlike any Yedlin had experienced. "I would think it would be one of the most exciting leagues to watch," Yedlin said. "The games are crazy." At any moment, several players could be strewn across the field. Injury time often extended into double-digits. Home crowds were fierce and fanatic, especially against Galatasaray, which is the de facto national team. "The transition was much, much harder than I expected," Yedlin said.

With little help from center-backs who prefer to stay in their own box, Yedlin was uneasy going too far forward. When he did, and then had the ball in a position to make a cross, he often hesitated, giving the opposition time to recover. "I know that," he said, abashed. He holds a hand out at eye level. "It's what takes me from being here," he said, then drops the hand down a foot, "to here."

"But every player here has some kind of problem like this," Terim said. "Why is DeAndre in Turkey? If he was perfect, he'd be somewhere better."

Against Sivasspor, on a cold night in an austere mountain city, Yedlin started one of his last games for Galatasaray. It was also one of his best. Left winger Max-Alain Gradel, the Ivoiran international, is Sivasspor's most dangerous player. Backed by shrill whistles whenever Galatasaray had possession, Gradel raced back and forth looking for the ball and an opening.

Yedlin gave him nothing. In a memorable encounter in the 61st minute, Gradel had the ball in the corner of the box with Yedlin to beat. For several moments, they remained at a standoff. Gradel faked. Yedlin held firm. When Gradel finally made a move to his left, Yedlin poked the ball out of bounds. "I don't know if I could have done that before I came to Turkey," Yedlin said.

After Galatasaray lost, the flight home felt funereal. "If you lose one game," said Arda Turan, the Turkish international who played at Barcelona and Atletico Madrid before returning to Galatasaray, "it is terrible." At training the next day, Yedlin knew the mood would be somber.
 
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