Newcastle United and Southampton are said to be keeping an eye on 18-year-old defender Emir Ortakaya who is taking the Turkish second-tier by storm.
Contracted to Fenerbahce, Ortakaya is currently on loan at Göztepe and has become a mainstay in their defence. He’s now made 25 appearances in all competitions becoming the backbone of the team.
Turkish site, Aksam report that Newcastle and Southampton are keeping a close eye on Ortakaya along with Marseille and Lyon.
Ortakaya is yet to make an appearance in the Turkish top flight
Ortakaya hasn’t made a single appearance for Fenerbahce since they snapped him up from Gençlerbirliği, but feelings are he will be knocking on the manager’s door when he returns to his parent club.
That is of course if they can fend off interest from abroad. It’s believed a bid of around £8.8million could be enough to see Fenerbahce consider selling the hot-prospect even with him having a contract until 2027. Gençlerbirliği would also benefit if there was to be a sale as they will receive 20% of the sale.
Ortakaya has only missed two 1.Lig games for Göztepe, one of which was a suspension after an accumulation of yellow cards.
A left-footed centre-back, if Newcastle were to make their move he’d likely be seen as the long-term replacement for Dan Burn as Sven Botman‘s understudy.
This one feels unlikely
It’s yet another name to add to Newcastle’s ever-increasing list of young players they’re keeping an eye on as Dan Ashworth‘s scouting network spreads around Europe in search of hot prospects.
My feeling on this one is that it may be too soon for Newcastle. One strong season in a mid-table second-tier Turkish side doesn’t feel like it would be enough experience for Newcastle to make their move. They should bide their time and see if he features at Fenerbahce at the top end of the Super Lig next season and assess the situation then.