He said “I resign” halfway through an answer
Nobody in the room was ready for it. Ismail Kartal sat down after Fenerbahce’s 1-1 draw with Roma and began talking about the game exactly as you would expect. “Tonight’s Champions League match ended with a strong performance and a real fighting spirit. We could have won it.”
Then he carried straight on. No pause, no signal.
“Tonight, I congratulate my players and resign from my post,” the 65-year-old said. And then the sentence that went round Turkey within minutes: “I resign from my post, with no intention of ever coming back.”
Try it for $0.99.
A fourth spell, over after three months
He had been back at Fenerbahce for barely three months, his fourth period in the job. He offered no specific reason for going.
What he did offer was that the call had not been his alone. “I made this decision for the good of my club. We made it together, as a team.” He thanked the supporters, the press, his staff and the president.
The league table was not kind. Fenerbahce sit ninth in Turkey, four points behind Galatasaray, which at a club built around title expectations is not survivable. It had looked that way since August.
He had just come through Lyon to get here
The timing had its own irony. Fenerbahce were back in the Champions League after a bad-tempered play-off tie against Olympique Lyonnais that went the distance.
They had also come from behind to draw with Roma, a respectable night’s work. That is the moment Kartal picked.
The Turkish press arrived expecting a match report. They left with something else.
Discover the rest of the FOOTBALL news on our site and app mathodds!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply