There is no sugarcoating the fact that Turkey disappointed at the World Cup.

Placed in a relatively forgiving group, and blessed with two of Europe’s brightest young talents in Kenan Yıldız and Arda Güler – both of whom have been nominated for the Kopa Trophy in recent seasons – many tipped the Crescent-Stars to at least navigate a path to the last 16 in the Americas.

In the event, defeats to Australia and Paraguay saw them eliminated with a match still to play. An entertaining victory over the USA proved to be scant consolation, their fate already determined.

All of which has naturally resulted in post-mortems being undertaken across the Turkish media, to identify the main causes for their premature exit, and primarily this has taken the form of a key question: Did their biggest stars do enough?

As we will see, in the case of Turkey’s 21-year-old Real Madrid schemer, the answer lies in the affirmative. Yes, he did.

Arda Güler’s World Cup 2026 in numbers

Games: 3, Minutes: 270

Goal involvements: 1

Shots: 12

Key passes: 5

Duels won: 39

Accurate passes: 167

Sprints: 120

Carries: 75

A toil turns to threat

From a statistical standpoint, the attacking midfielder was least effective in Turkey’s opening game vs Australia. Indeed, it’s interesting to note that his most impressive numbers pertain to his work-rate over creativity.

As his team toiled, so did he, ultimately in vain.

It’s also interesting to note that against Paraguay, six days later, Vincenzo Montella moved Güler off the right flank to his preferred role as a number ten. Whereupon the 2024 Kopa Trophy runner-up instantly became more instrumental and impactful.

Turkey may have lost 1-0 but Güler was a threat throughout, registering three key passes and 46 completed passes in the opposition half.

With their journey home all-but-guaranteed Turkey then faced the USA and clearly the Los Blancos star was dead-set on going out on a high.

A very early concession by Turkey looked ominous but the midfielder equalised soon after, converting his country’s first goal of the tournament. He then followed that up with a Man of the Match performance, winning 100% of his dribbles and covering 10.4km.

In summary

No-one can query Güler’s endeavour in the Americas, winning the highest number of duels of any Turkish player.  

Additionally, he completed the second highest tally of accurate passes and for a player so advanced, and charged with taking risks, that is noteworthy.

An overview of the player’s tournament leads to a suspicion that he was growing into it, improving game-on-game, but Turkey’s exit at the group stage prevented the midfielder from truly showing his worth.

Perhaps that is what Real Madrid have to look forward to in 2026/27?