Cenk Özkacar Misses Out on Euro 2024… And the Shop Window
Cenk Özkacar has been left out of the final squad for Euro 2024 with Turkey. The defender has been a regular in recent years for his country but at the last minute, he has been left out of the final squad, which has been a blow to him after a difficult year, but also to Valencia CF, which sees a stumbling block in its plan with Cenk… and with the defense.
The idea that Valencia has is to try to sell the player this summer. They were counting on the Euro to be a good shop window for him because although he played little as a central defender for his country, the coach usually used him as a left-back. That exit plan with an asset that cost 5 million (690,000 is paid annually for installment payments) has fallen through.
Valencia’s clear plan for the summer is: Mosquera as the defensive leader, Tárrega as his sidekick, Yarek as the left defender, sell Cenk and bring in a slightly more experienced defender. A plan that is already difficult given the interests that are accumulating for Mosquera and now even more so given the difficulty in selling Cenk for not playing in the Euro.
In addition, the player does not want to return to his country, where he had interests as he did in January, although he is motivated by the idea of playing in Italy. In fact, last January there was an attempt by an Italian club and the defender did give the ‘ok’ to move forward, but it did not materialize.
Cenk is fully integrated into the team and Rubén Baraja has no complaints in that regard about him: he accepts playing less than other teammates, doesn’t make faces… But from a footballing point of view, they are looking for a player with higher performance and above all, if they have to bet on someone on the left, they want it to be Yarek Gasiorowski, who has a contract until 2026 that will be renewed for one more year when he plays 20 games with the first team.