The Thinking That Turned €650,000 into €40 Million
Trabzonspor finished third and lifted the cup as the lowest spenders in the Süper Lig. To understand that this is no accident, you have to look not at the pitch but at the scouting desk.
This is an opinion column. It reflects the writer's personal view and should not be confused with FutbolRadar's verified match data.
When a 19-year-old midfielder arrived from the French side Bastia last summer, the €5m fee Trabzonspor paid struck some people as excessive. The boy's market value was still only €650,000. A season has passed; today the figure coming out of the burgundy-and-blue board for that same footballer — Christ Oulai — is €40m. €650,000 becoming €40m in a single season… The whole story is hidden inside that sentence.
Because it is not a coincidence. Set Oulai aside for a moment: they signed the Ukrainian centre-back Arseniy Batagov from Zorya Luhansk for next to nothing, and mid-table European clubs are talking about him now. They brought in two right-backs from Portugal in succession; first Pedro Malheiro from Boavista, then Wagner Pina from Estoril. Felipe Augusto, Zubkov, Folcarelli, Nwaiwu, Sikan… The list runs on, and every name on it shares one quality: none of them arrived as a star, and all of them became stars in Trabzon.
The classic reflex of Turkish football is well known: open the vault, pay a fortune for an ageing player with a familiar name, play him for two seasons, then let him leave for free. Trabzonspor paid the bill for that cycle for years and went through severe financial crises. Then something changed. The club turned "buy cheap, develop, sell high" into a model. Internally they call it the transfer cycle. Selling Uğurcan Çakır for €36m was its most visible link; but the real skill lies in redirecting that money towards young players who will generate value again.
The numbers show how well this thinking works with brutal clarity. In the 2025-26 season Trabzonspor spent just €38.6m on their squad and were the league's lowest investors. Over the same period Galatasaray spent €157.6m, Beşiktaş roughly €129m and Fenerbahçe €124m. In other words, the Fırtına did not lay out even a quarter of what their nearest rival did. And what did they get for it? Third place in the league, a tenth Turkish Cup, a centre-forward sharing the Golden Boot with Paul Onuachu, and a ticket to Europe. On return per euro spent, they are comfortably first among the big four.
Behind that record is a team that never touches the ball: the scouting department. For a long time Eren Mert ran it. The team combed South America inch by inch; Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay. A working method that married analytical data to the eye in the stand, weighing a player's technique, physical development, character, injury history, cost and the most critical question of all — "what can I sell him for tomorrow?" — at the same desk. That is the point vice-president Zeyyat Kafkas keeps underlining: this is not about one genius, it is about an institutional intelligence. And the most important filter in that intelligence is the head coach, because Fatih Tekke will not take a single name that does not fit his idea of the game.
This is exactly where it gets complicated. As these lines are being written, Eren Mert has resigned his post at Trabzonspor and joined Acun Ilıcalı's English Championship club Hull City. Uğur Uzunali, who has worked at the club for years, has been appointed in his place. And a fair question has begun circulating in the game: was this success the work of a system, or of one man?
My own answer sits somewhere between the two; but the question has to be asked properly. A well-built scouting structure should, by definition, not depend on a single person. If the reporting system, the data infrastructure and the shared footballing philosophy are permanent, one departure does not stop the wheel. That is what Kafkas is trying to say. But let us be honest: losing your best evaluator is never "nothing". The eye that could see Oulai despite a €650,000 market value is not sitting at every desk.
Which is why the real examination comes next season. A club's scouting success is not measured by one signing coming off; it is measured by the same accuracy continuing after the man who built it has gone. Over the last two years Trabzonspor have taught Turkish football a very valuable lesson: wealth is not in money, it is in judgement. Now we will find out whether that judgement has genuinely been institutionalised. The Fırtına have waved off their architect; the question now is whether the building stands.