In recent weeks, Schalke loanee Mehmet Aydin has been making regular appearances for Trabzonspor. Now he gets a new coach.

With his loan move to Trabzonspor, Mehmet Aydin hoped for more playing practice. So far, this plan has largely worked out. The right-back didn’t make an appearance last matchday, but he was in the starting eleven in each of the previous five games for the Süper Liga club.

Now, however, the cards are being reshuffled for Aydin and his teammates: they are getting a new coach, as Trabzonspor has parted ways with Nenad Bjelica after just six months. On Thursday, the club from the Black Sea coast announced the separation from the former Bundesliga professional.

His successor has already been named: Abdullah Avci will take over the seventh-placed team in the Turkish top flight. This marks the return of the man who led Trabzon to the championship at the end of the 2021/22 season and was on the sidelines until the spring of this year.

Will he back Aydin? In any case, the Schalke talent will not be able to prove himself in team training for the time being – but he will be able to do so in the jersey of the U21 national team: Aydin is currently on tour with the Turkish junior team. At the beginning of the year, he was still part of the senior national team squad without making any appearances.

Now the Würsel-born player has to take the detour via the U21 squad in order to make his debut in the “Milli Takim” jersey and, above all, to earn a place in the squad for the European Championship in Germany next summer. After two defeats at the start of the qualifying round for the U21 European Championship, Turkey is already under pressure in the duels against San Marino (Friday, 6.45 p.m.) and Latvia (Tuesday, 2 p.m.).

For Aydin, it would be the first international matches ever for Turkey. Up until his U20s, the Schalke native had always played for the German national under-20 teams. His last international match was a year ago for the DFB’s U20 team.