Not much has been heard from or said about Rade Krunic since his move to Fenerbahce in the winter, but an interesting report has surfaced about his struggles.
Krunic left Milan during the January transfer window on a loan with obligation to buy deal. He started the season as a central part of Stefano Pioli’s plans but gradually drifted towards becoming an afterthought following some poor performances and injury issues.
Joining up with Edin Dzeko at Fenerbahce was meant to be something he had wanted since the summer when they first came in, but Sporx are reporting that he is finding life in Turkey difficult.
There was a lot of expectation on Krunic to deliver for the Istanbul club but those ‘expectations were not met’. He has played just 12 league games for Fenerbahce, with just six of them being for the full 90 minutes.
The report claims that he has told his close circle that there is ‘more pressure in Turkey than in Italy’. He seems to be feeling the heat despite the fact Milan are a far bigger club who compete for titles and in the top European competition.
As a reminder, his loan will become permanent in the event that Fenerbahce remain in the league. There were some rumours of them pulling out after an attack from Trabzonspor fans but this has now cooled.
He will struggle everywhere. It’s just baffling how he became a professional footballer. He doesn’t even have some of the most fundamental skills you would expect from a professional player, let alone one playing in large European first divisions.
And now, all Krunic lovers are going to say that I don’t know football and if he was still around we would be in the Champions League semi-finals and still fighting for Serie A.
I agree he’s not very good but “It’s just baffling how he became a professional footballer.” is mental
You don’t know about football
No we wouldn’t be in CL semis and fight for Scudetto. Surely not. But you really don’t know anything about football. If you wrote soccer, that would at least explain it why.
It irritates me when I see people who have a prejudice against the word “soccer” – they think they are clever and are mocking Americans. Well, they are NOT clever.
For your information, this site is meant to use the English language, and there are two words for this sport in English: soccer, a word that was proposed by the BRITISH (did you know that?) decades ago as a contraction of Association Football, and Football itself. The word soccer is preferred in English-speaking countries that have other football codes like American, Canadian, and Australian football codes, which are different sports, so soccer is preferred, to differentiate these sports in the spoken and written languages. Have you heard of the socceroos?
Not all languages have some word derived of football to define this sport. Hey, look at Italian: the language uses the completely unrelated term calcio, which is Italian for kick. Do you also have a prejudice against Italians because they say calcio instead of some word derived from the word football??? So, do Italians who say calcio (that is, ALL of them) do not know the sport because they are not saying some word close to football?
As for implying that Americans don’t know well the sport, well, that’s also extremely silly. This might have been the case several decades ago but is no longer the case, soccer being now among the five most popular major sports in America, and rapidly closing on baseball to become the third most popular sport (ice hockey is already behind), only behind American Football and Basketball. In some parameters like average stadium attendance, soccer is already ahead of baseball. Soccer is also already the most PRACTICED sport in America, with kids now (actually, for several years now) playing it more often than baseball, American football, and even basketball, which used to be #1 and is now #2, behind soccer.
The generation that grew up playing soccer in America has now reached the young adult age, and yes, these people do know soccer in its strategies and tactics. When you play the game since your childhood, yes, you know the game.
The evolution of soccer in America is shown by the large number of American players who now play in the top five club leagues in Europe (I just counted, there are 29 of them; I didn’t even count the ones that also play in Europe but not in the top five leagues); the EPL, the best club league in the world, has 7 of them. As you must know, at AC Milan we have two of them: Pulisic and Musah. Juve has two, Weah and McKennie. All four are good players (Musah is the less good one of the four but he is very young, has been poorly utilized out of position, and will likely learn and develop more).
So, what’s exactly your point? Whoever uses the word soccer doesn’t know the sport? Well, you are wrong. Pulisic uses the word soccer, and there is no doubt that he knows the sport.
So, don’t imply that others are ignorant, when you are displaying ignorance yourself. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Although I think Ted, who I agree mostly on this site, was being sarcastic towards op, you bore a relevant point here that also bothers me alot ie people who don’t realize soccer is actually a British term that just happened to be now associated with North Americans for some reason or the other. I also dont look down at people who use the term. And also many people on this side of the pond also use football but soccer is used more to distinguish it primarily from American football so it gained popularity that way
Pulišić is Croatian.
Nope. Pulisic is American; he was born in the United States, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, from American parents. His PATERNAL GRANDFATHER is Croatian. Is his first name, Christian, a Croatian name? Like many children who are descendant of immigrants, Pulisic is a dual citizen of the United States and Croatia: American by birth, but entitled to Croatian citizenship on paper, because his grandfather is Croatian. It was advantageous for him to obtain Croatian citizenship through his grandfather, so that he is considered to be European (and more specifically, a citizen of the European Union, of which Croatia became a member), therefore not subject to certain restrictions that non-European people have in Italy.
Christian’s mother, when single named Kelley Harlow, is 100% American. Mark Pulisic, his father, is also American, but is a child of a Croatian father and an Italian (Sicilian) mother, Johanna DiStefano. Mark Pulisic, Christian’s father, has an Italian flag tattooed on his forearm.
Blood-wise, Pulisic has 25% of Croatian blood, 25% Italian, and 50% American. Citizenship-wise, Pulisic was born and raised in the United States from American parents, therefore he is an American citizen, and only later he acquired Croatian citizenship through his grandfather.
In Milan not much was expected from him. Everything he contributed was just a bonus, especially when you add his salary into the equation.
Based on reports he is making 3 times more in Fenerbache than he did at Milan. When they give you such a high salary they expect from you to perform in accordance to that salary.
How many Milan players performance dropped off after they got a raise? Kalulu, Calabria, Saelemakers even Tomori last season and Leao this season.
They were over performing their low salaries because of low expectations and they are under performing their higher salaries because of higher expectations.
To whom much is given much will be required. Not all players can live up to those expectations.
The point is that every footballer overperforms when they are looking to get a higher salary. Afterwards there is a period of appeasement where motivation is lacking (especially for a young player). You either need to have solid internal structures to motivate yourself, or have someone else push you …
I’d say that Krunic is going through a period of adjustment. Joining mid-year a new team is never easy. You have new coach, new country, new teammates, new tactics and new duties on the field.
I still think that unless he has checked out mentally and is counting the days till retirement, next year he’ll be able to contribute much more …
Really strange article tbh but it’s in line with the usual beat down of Krunic this site has known to do. Krunic first three or so games were actually very very good, so this sort of article couldn’t have come out then. I think he lost confidence in the Europa game and went down from there. And he hasn’t gotten the faith of the coach as yet. Also turkey always have a crazy atmosphere be it Basketball,. football what have u. That fener-gala rivalry makes most if not all rivalries in Italy pale in comparison
Krunic is master of none. Period. Be it Italy, Turkey or Nepal.
This. If he was a GOAT, then why does he struggle in Turkey? Is Serie A THAT much worse, eh? 😀
The guy has nothing to offer everywhere except primavera.
We’re still stuck hearing about Krunic even after he was shown the door 😂
Color me surprised. He stinks in Milan and he stinks in Turkey lol
It is his choice for big money. If he stay , he can still become pioli key player but now he is struggle in turkey
It’s not because of pressure, it’s because he’s poor 😄