Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at 13:54• Dominic Mostert • Last update: 14:06

Galatasaray has canceled the contract of Younès Belhanda, the top club from Istanbul confirms in an official statement. The midfielder is accused of damaging the club’s image in an interview he gave on Sunday after the game against Sivasspor (2-2). In it, Belhanda was critical of the state of the turf in the Türk Telekom Stadium.

After the draw, Belhanda held Galatasaray’s club management responsible for the state of the field. “It is not easy to get back to this field in the race. The Galatasaray drivers have to find a solution to this,” the 31-year-old Morocco international said. beIN Sports. “They know that we have to play on this field. They should not be concerned with what is on Twitter and Instagram or what is being said by the press. They should take care of the maintenance of the stadium.”

“They have to do something about it. We are the ones on the field and they have to make sure that we can play football on the weekend in the best conditions. Even our training complex is better than this,” Belhanda concluded. Three days after the match, Galatasaray has decided to terminate his contract. In the Turkish media, former club directors Levent Nazifoglu and Turgay Kiran react to the club’s decision to get rid of Belhanda. Nazifoglu thinks the club is overcooked. “You can keep this man out of your selection, but you shouldn’t cancel his contract,” he says.

“We took him as the new number 10 after the departure of Wesley Sneijder and we hoped that he could become just as good. But his qualities turned out to be limited,” adds the former driver. Kiran also recalls that Belhanda was brought in as Sneijder’s successor. “We made a mistake by canceling Sneijder’s contract. But the same cannot be said of Belhanda. Sneijder was much, much better. It was a wrong decision to send him away and replace Belhanda.”

Belhanda came over from Dynamo Kiev in 2017 for eight million euros. His contract expired at the end of this season. Belhanda has played 99 league matches for Galatasaray since his arrival, 22 of which are in the current season. He had a base spot in 17 of the 28 matches that Galatasaray played this year, but will now have to look for a new club.