At the age of 18, he was considered one of the greatest talents in German football and shocked Bayer Leverkusen fans in 2012 with his last-minute transfer to Liverpool FC. But Samed Yesil (30) ultimately didn’t become a star, mainly because of a number of injuries.
The Düsseldorf-born striker became a wandering bird; in Liverpool he only made two appearances in the League Cup. At an age where, if his career progresses optimally, he could still have years in the national team ahead of him, he is now voluntarily playing in District League B. At least: the results there still show his enormous talent.
Samed Yesil is heading towards over 100 goals this season
With Yesil, Anadolu Türkspor Krefeld 77/88 has an enormous guarantee of success in its ranks, with a whopping 35 goals to their name after nine league games. There are also twelve assists for goals. Makes an average of a good five scorer points per game.
But Yesil is unimpressed by the numbers, assures in an interview with “fussball.de“: “Personal success is not my focus. The crucial thing is promotion with the team.” With a perfect record and 80:7 goals, the ambitious newcomer is currently leading the league.
Yesil scored his goals again and again, especially in the early phases of his career. For Bayer 04’s U19s there were 21 in 31 games in the Junior Bundesliga. The German junior national teams recorded 31 goals in 34 games. This is also why he was considered to have good prospects of making it into the A team later on.
“Looking back, I was extremely unlucky with injuries, I tore two cruciate ligaments in a row and was out for a total of two years. After that, minor injuries like torn muscle fibers or strains kept throwing me off track,” says Yesil, reflecting on his fate today.
In 2022/2023, after stints in Switzerland, Greece and Turkey, he only played in the upper league at VfB Homberg. But even the four training sessions per week there became too much for his family life with two children, so he voluntarily retired and now plays football for fun.
After moving a few leagues lower, there were still negative comments. “How can you crash like that?” is what Yesil kept hearing at the beginning. For a year he went to the CSV Marathon in the Krefeld District League A (44 goals in 27 games), and he also played in the Baller League.
Now Yesil is playing a class lower. But the expectations are correspondingly high. The goalscorer revealed that his personal goal is 60 goals, and his friends are even talking about the 100 mark. That’s not arrogant: If he even comes close to maintaining his previous average, he would actually have a triple-digit goal tally at the end of the season.
