My dear fellow AC Milan fans, it seems like Ozan Kabak is on his way to Italy and the deal can be completed as soon as tomorrow.
As a Turkish football scout, who has followed his career since literally day one I would like to introduce him to you. Check it out

The 20 year old centre-back started his career in the youth academy of the successful Turkish giants Galatasaray. He worked his way through the academy, which produced many Turkish stars such as Tugay, Emre and Arda Turan.

He made his domestic league debut towards the end of the 17/18 season where he came on as a substitute. The following season, Kabak became the starting centre-back and impressed immediately domestically and also in Champions League.

After only 17 matches, Stuttgart knocked on Galatasaray’s door and got him for about 11m€. In the second half of the 18/19 season, Kabak played in 15 games and scored 3 goals. However he couldn’t prevent Stuttgart’s relegation, which Schalke used for their own favor.

For 15m€ Kabak was transferred to Schalke&last season he played in 26 games, scoring 3 goals. In a very poor Schalke team Kabak left his mark in Bundesliga and displayed his huge potential to all European clubs. There were rumors that Bayern&Liverpool made inquiries for him.

This season however didn’t start off well for him, as he spit on his opponent (unintentionally) and got suspended. Still, he is from the same generation of Turkish centre-backs with massive potential to be successful in top class European football and considered as a “golden boy”

But what kind of player is Kabak? He should be described as a perfect modern day centre-back: A right-footed pacy defender, who is a good passer and solid intercepter. His heading skills are top notch and his defensive awareness is like a veteran defender. He’s only 20 by the way

He is an aggressive and very stronger defender, who fights hard to clear the possible danger. He has the composure that a centre-back should have and his marking skills are great too. Obviously he is also a good tackler, but he can be too aggressive in his sliding tackles.

Other weaknesses of Kabak are that his positioning is not that great, he can also sometimes make unnecessary, easy mistakes which could be avoided if he wouldn’t take too many risks and just played simple. He’s also still inexperienced; he played only in 65 official matches.

All in all he is considered as one of the best upcoming centre-back and probably one of the best who can be bought from his owning club, as Schalke is experiencing major issues as a club. They are desperate to save themselves financially and Kabak is their biggest gem.

Since the transfer window is about to be closed, Schalke would be willing to let him go for less than they asked in the beginning of this period. Milan on the other hand would get a wonderful piece to the puzzle and fight their way into top 4 this season.

The success of Turkish defenders in Serie A is evident: Demiral for Sassuolo and Juventus, Cetin and Günter for Verona, Müldür and Ayhan also for Sassuolo. Kabak would be a safe bet for today and a great asset for the future for my favorite team in Italy, AC Milan.

Even on national Turkish TV I was representing the club of AC Milan, so I gotta say I’m very happy to hear that one of the Turkish wonderkids would join my club. I’m sure he would also feel at home as Calhanoglu would be a big brother to him. Hopefully the deal happens! #ACMilan

Lastly, in case you were wondering who the hell I am let me introduce myself: My name is AJ Kutlu, an Amsterdam based senior chief scout working for the Turkish organization @TrScoutsCo . For couple of years I’ve been a guest expert on various Turkish TV and radio channels.

I actually mostly tweet in Turkish on my main account @alicankutlu_ so I decided to create this new account to reach also non-Turkish speaking people. Basically on Twitter I introduce football players especially when there is news about a possible transfer, just to be informative