Arda Guler is playing life in easy mode. The 19-year-old Turkish prodigy lit up the Turkish Super Lig in the 22/23 season and earned himself a transfer to Real Madrid. And even at the Bernabeu, he has been a fan-favourite from the very onset.
One might feel that with all that is happening around him, he might feel he has grown up a lot. But as things stand, his apparent ‘ageing’ is due to a completely different reason. During an interview with a Turkish media house earlier this week, Arda revealed his weird predicament in Madrid.
During the interview, he revealed to the world that everyone in the club calls him ‘abi’. It is normal for teammates to have more personal nicknames for players. But in most cases, these names are reflective of the person’s attitude, their qualities, and more commonly, their real names.
However, it is not the same for Guler whose nickname has no similarity with his name. Abi is a Turkish word that means ‘elder brother’. To imagine that Arda is called a ‘big brother’ by 38-year-old Luka Modric is both hilarious and puzzling.
During the interview which is scheduled to be published on Monday with Kafa Sports, the teenager said, “They call me big brother Arda. Everyone says big brother, big brother, big brother. I’m surprised too when Modric calls me brother.” Candaş Tolga Işık, the interviewer, was visibly amused at the comment.
Social media also didn’t waste time to be creative with the information and lots of memes started pouring down, calling out Modric for calling someone half his age ‘abi’. It seems that the players looked up how to say brother in Google Translate and since ‘abi’ is easy to pronounce for everyone, kept it at that.
However, not everyone is in the same boat. David Alaba, the Austrian centre-back, called him kardeşim in a recent video, which means little brother. Arda also mentioned how Alaba teases him for playing for Fenerbache and the latter is a Galatasaray fan.
Arda’s frankness during the interview betrayed the dressing room environment in Madrid. Many young players have found it difficult to fit into the Madrid dressing room. Norwegian star Martin Odegaard said in an interview, “When you’re at the highest level it’s not so easy to make friends. At least not when you’re young and you come from another place. I came from a different dressing room culture and it’s not easy to integrate into a new one.”
After an injury-plagued start, it seems that the Turkish wunderkind is having a good time in the Spanish capital. He has made just six appearances in the season, probably as Carlo Ancelotti making sure to introduce the youngster to the game slowly, to reduce injury risks. Guler suffered a meniscus damage and another muscle injury which rendered him unfit for the majority of the season. However, it seems that the player has turned a corner, and his incredible performance in the last few weeks shows how fast he is growing in confidence. In time, he might become the ‘Abi’ in the team, metaphorically, if not literally.