Turkish national coach Senol Günes has included Halil Dervisoglu in Turkey’s preliminary European Championship selection, it was announced on Friday. The 21-year-old attacker is working as a mercenary for Galatasaray in a strong second part of the season, with two goals and two assists in the Süper Lig. In the first half of the season, as a mercenary of FC Twente, he was still not very successful. Feyenoord midfielder Orkun Kökcü has also secured a place in the 30-man selection, which will be reduced to 26 players after the selection. Kökcü was still accurate on Thursday in Feyenoord’s away match against Heracles Almelo (1-1).
Dervisoglu, hired by Galatasaray from Brentford, has not yet made playing minutes for Turkey, although he already represented his country as a youth international. Ridvan Yilmaz and Kerem Aktürkoglu have also been selected by Günes for the first time. Kökcü already has three international matches to his name. Against the the Dutch (4-2) in March, the midfielder stayed on the bench for ninety minutes. Günes also has room for Burak Yilmaz, who is working on a very strong season at Lille OSC. The Turkish team will compete in the group stage of the European Championship against Italy (June 11), Wales (June 16) and Switzerland (June 20).
The full roster of Turkey:
Target: Ugurcan Çakir (Trabzonspor), Altay Bayindir (Fenerbahçe), Gökhan Akkan (Ankaraspor), Mert Günok (Istanbul Basaksehir)
Defense: Zeki Çelik (Lille OSC), Mert Müldür (Sassuolo), Merih Demiral (Juventus), Ozan Kabak (Liverpool), Çaglar Söyüncü (Leicester City), Kaan Ayhan (Sassuolo), Umut Meras (Le Havre), Ridvan Yilmaz (Besiktas)
Midfield: Mahmut Tekdemir (Istanbul Basaksehir), Okay Yokuslu (West Bromwich Albion), Taylan Antalyali (Galatasaray), Ozan Tufan ((Fenerbahçe), Dorukhan Toköz (Besiktas), Orkun Kökçü, Yusuf Yazici (Lille OSC), Irfan Can Kahvece , Hakan Çalhanoglu (AC Milan)
Attack: Cengiz Ünder (Leicester City), Efecan Karaca (Alanyaspor), Halil Akbunar (Göztepe), Abdülkadir Ömür (Trabzonspor), Kerem Aktürkoglu (Galatasaray), Burak Yilmaz (Lille OSC), Enes Ünal (Getuna Fortuna), Düsseldorf Karaman ) and Halil Dervisoglu (Galatasaray).