Talking to reporters on Wednesday, Tekke said, alluding to his former Trabzonspor teammate Gökdeniz Karadeniz, who plays for Rubin Kazan: “Our success is Turkey’s success. There are also Muslims in Russia. They follow our matches incredibly closely. We’re trying to be successful here, for our country. We’re doing the best we can. We experience great feelings when we’re successful, when we score a goal, when we’re useful to our team,” he said.Tekke expressed the excitement of Gökdeniz scoring a goal against Barcelona last week, saying: “I called Gökdeniz and congratulated him after the Barcelona match. It was widely talked about in Turkey as well. It’s a great thing. It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing for a Turkish player to score a winning goal at Camp Nou Stadium against Barcelona during the Champions League.”
Noting that there was a month left until the end of the league in Russia, Tekke said he wanted to come back to Turkey and especially to Trabzon. “I’ve been playing for 10 weeks now. Thank God, I haven’t been injured. From my perspective, it’s going well. I want to make the best of the matches that are left; after that, I don’t know what will happen. I know the Zenit club is thinking about sitting back down at the table with me, and that they’ll make clear what they’re thinking in November. But I should say this -- of course I want to return to Turkey, I especially want to return to Trabzon. Of course, this is my wish. My contract ends in August. But I have no way of knowing what the club’s stance will be at that point,” he said.
Recommendations to younger players
Tekke said that Trabzonspor has many talented rising stars. “But critics are always saying negative things about these players. Nothing positive is said about them. … They should be educated. In my opinion, a player should love reading. The young player’s best friends should be books. … Young players shouldn’t spend their time in bad places, they should do their job. The players here [in Russia] aren’t ahead of the Turkish players in terms of talent, but they work differently. From the first step on the field until they leave they concentrate 100 percent. If they have any shortcomings they work, work, work extra time to get rid of them. And it’s not like working and practicing in Turkey; there is an unbelievable level of commitment to practice. And I’m just talking about Russia. Think about England, Italy, and Spain, what it must be like there.”
Tekke said Trabzonspor player Barış Memiş was an example of these gifted young players. “He’s a talented player, a good player but he’s losing time. He’s losing two to three years of time. By now he should have already come into his own. … Work, work, work. When we think we’re good enough, we never get anywhere.”
