Not so long ago, a Juventus manager classed a trio of rising stars together as the very best strikers of their generation. Max Allegri named Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland alongside the tall Serbian, Dusan Vlahovic, in whom the Italians had just invested close to €80 million.
Suffice to report that Allegri, then in his second spell in charge of Juve, was right about two of those names. And that, as Mbappe and Haaland enter the second half of their 20s, usually the peak period for a forward, in superb form, Vlahovic has a lot of catching up to do.
Whether he even starts Wednesday’s marquee fixture, Real Madrid against Juventus, in the Uefa Champions League is in doubt, with under-pressure Juve coach, Igor Tudor, increasingly inclined to use Vlahovic off the bench for the later phases of matches.
At Madrid, Mbappe has meanwhile become essential. His 15th goal in 11 club matches so far this season made the difference again at the weekend, the late decider in a taut, gnarly 1-0 triumph at Getafe.
But every leader of the forward line needs the right allies, and Mbappe’s startling early-season form owes plenty to Arda Guler, provider of five assists for the Frenchman already, all while redefining his role in the Madrid set-up.
As for Vlahovic, he has come to learn over the past two years that the best accomplice for his centre-forward game is Kenan Yildiz.
Guler and Yildiz spent last week together with their national team, Turkey, reminding that, should the Turks make their way, probably via a play-off, to next summer’s World Cup in North America, the tournament would be enriched by the presence of two exceptional creative talents. And a pair with their best years ahead.
They are both only 20 but already assuming pivotal importance for their country and for the aristocrat clubs of Italy and Spain. Turkey have emphatically restored authority to their World Cup campaign, after a chastening 6-0 defeat by Spain last month, by scoring 10 times across two fixtures.
Their two latest victories were both galvanised by their starlets. Guler scored within 12 minutes of kick-off in Bulgaria, with an exquisitely timed run and an even more assured finish, adding two assists later in the 6-1 triumph. Yildiz scored twice, his first set up by Guler, and his second a thumping angled shot.
The Juventus player then initiated the rout of Georgia, his clever run beating the offside line – VAR was required to confirm as much – and culminating in a deft lob over the head of Giorgi Mamardashvili. That was after 13 minutes. After 90, Turkey had won 4-1.
“I don’t see many young players in Europe who are more talented than Yildiz,” Fatih Terim, the veteran coach who guided Turkey to the semi-finals of Euro 2008, told Gazzetta dello Sport, making sure to put Guler within the same bracket.
“Luckily for Turkey, we have another star in Arda Guler. When you consider they are only 20 years old, we still don’t know how far they can go.”
Well placed to see how far Yildiz has come already, and how Guler might develop is Xabi Alonso, the Madrid coach who in his four months in charge at the Bernabeu has carefully cultivated the productive Guler-Mbappe axis.
Alonso also vividly recalls seeing the precocious schoolboy potential of Yildiz, born in Bavaria, the son of a Turkish father and enrolled in Bayern Munich’s academy from the age of seven.
Xabi Alonso was in the senior Bayern midfield while Yildiz was ascending through the club’s junior levels on the way to moving to Juventus at 17.
“He’s come through fantastically,” Alonso said, ahead of Juventus’s arrival at the Bernabeu. “I remember him well from when he was at Bayern. I’m really pleased to see how well he has progressed.”
As for Guler, Alsonso was yesterday drawn to other compass points in his playing past. He likened Guler, who joined Madrid at 18 having already broken into the Fenerbahce first team, to Mesut Ozil, a teammate of Alonso’s at Real Madrid for three seasons from 2010 and briefly a Fenerbahce colleague of the younger Guler.
“It’s in the quality they have in building a move and executing the final pass,” Alonso said. “I loved playing alongside Mesut, and the more we see of Guler, the more we improve. We need to keep pushing him, but we’re very happy with him.”
At issue for Madrid with Guler, as with Juventus and Yildiz, is where best to deploy their range of skills.
Tudor is the third different coach to have pondered whether Yildiz, with his turn of pace, tricky dribbling and eye for goal from a range of distances, can have greater impact from a wide-left attacking position, or playing more centrally, as partner to a striker such as Vlahovic or one of the new signings Jonathan David or Lois Openda.
Guler has been tried in fresh roles under Alonso, often asked to operate deeper in midfield than he had been accustomed to under Carlo Ancelotti, the coach who used him sparingly during his first two seasons with Madrid.
His initiation had been disrupted by injury and overshadowed by the impact made by Jude Bellingham, who joined the club in the same summer.
But such has been Guler’s impact lately that, for Xabi, it can seem harder to leave him out than Bellingham from the starting XI. His versatility has become a forte.
While Guler is incisive, like Yildiz, from the wing, his newer role as a deeper midfielder who can set the tempo, and deliver the sorts of through balls that Mbappe and Vinicius Junior thrive on is appealing to madridistas who still miss the way Toni Kroos, who retired last year, used to exert creative control.
“It is time to invest in Arda,” said Alonso in the summer, as he set out his plans as coach. “We’ll be pushing him to gain experience, to mature as a player and make it clear that he can make mistakes on the way.”
There have been errors: a moment of carelessness to concede the lead against Marseille on Matchday 1 of the Champions League; a penalty given away in the 5-2 derby loss to Atletico Madrid. But set against that are the match-winning contributions to a series of narrow Liga victories and that very fruitful alliance with Mbappe.