At just twenty, Arda Güler returns to the Champions League as a starter for Real Madrid. From frustration and waiting on the sidelines to Xabi Alonso’s trust and a budding partnership with Mbappé, the Turkish midfielder has become a source of pride for his country and a new creative force for Madrid’s European ambitions.
The Champions League returns to the Santiago Bernabéu and, for the first time, Arda Güler is stepping onto the stage not as a young promise or an emergency option, but as a player who has become an undisputed starter for Real Madrid.
At only twenty years old, the Turkish midfielder faces Europe’s most prestigious competition with a mixture of joy, determination and a sense of unfinished business. His smile in recent days reflects the emotions of someone who knows that the moment he has been waiting for has finally arrived, and that this is the opportunity to establish himself as one of the main protagonists in the tournament he always dreamed of playing.
His journey in the Champions League so far has been one of patience and frustration rather than brilliance. In his first season at Real Madrid, under the command of Carlo Ancelotti, the club lifted the trophy in spectacular fashion, yet Arda never played a single minute in the competition. While the celebrations at Cibeles were euphoric, he privately admitted to feeling that he had not truly contributed to the conquest. The following season brought a small step forward, but still far from the role he imagined for himself. He made his debut in the competition and played in seven group stage matches, but his minutes were scattered and insignificant. He accumulated just one hundred and forty-two minutes across those games, including brief cameos against Stuttgart, Lille, Dortmund, Atalanta, Salzburg and Brest, with only his fifty-six minutes against Liverpool standing out as a proper test. When the knockout stages arrived and the decisive battles were fought against Manchester City, Atlético and Arsenal, he disappeared from the rotation entirely. What should have been a springboard became instead a campaign of learning laced with frustration, reminding him that his time at the top level was still ahead of him.
Everything changed this summer with the arrival of Xabi Alonso. The Basque coach, known for his tactical intelligence and ability to trust young players, identified Güler as much more than a luxury talent. He saw a player capable of influencing matches at their core, and so he gave him responsibility from the very first moment. Placing him in an interior role and asking him to connect play through the middle, Alonso moved him closer to the action and to Kylian Mbappé, the club’s star acquisition. The partnership was immediate, and in a matter of weeks, Arda transformed from a player on the fringes into one of the creative engines of Real Madrid. His own words confirm the change: he has repeated in several appearances that he feels important with Xabi, that he senses the coach’s trust, and that this has elevated both his confidence and his performances. Already this season he has scored twice in La Liga, with two other goals disallowed, and he has silenced the voices that dismissed him as nothing more than a stylish player. The elegance of his left foot remains intact, but now it is matched by an efficiency that makes him decisive.
The understanding with Mbappé has been one of the revelations of the season. The French forward, so used to thriving on balls into space, has found in Güler a teammate who can read his movements, provide surgical passes and unlock defences that seemed unbreakable. What is most striking is how quickly this connection has formed: in just a few weeks together, they already look like they have been combining for years. Inside the Madrid dressing room, teammates have spoken with surprise about how natural the partnership feels, and in Valdebebas there are already those who describe it as the lethal weapon of the campaign.
For Güler, the leap has also carried enormous significance far beyond Madrid. In Turkey, every step he takes is followed with passion and expectation. He is regarded as the most promising player the country has produced in decades, and his progress at Real Madrid has been embraced as a source of national pride. The comparisons with figures like Hakan Şükür or Arda Turan are constant, though many in Istanbul and Ankara believe that Güler has the potential to go even further, not only because of his technical qualities but also because of the global dimension of the club he represents. To wear the white shirt of Real Madrid and to shine in the Champions League is seen in his homeland as the fulfilment of a collective dream, and his matches are watched by millions who feel that part of their identity is represented every time he steps onto the pitch.
As the Champions League nights return to the Bernabéu, the responsibility placed upon him is immense. He is no longer the understudy waiting for a chance, but a key figure in the starting eleven of the most decorated club in European football. The challenge will be to maintain consistency, to manage the physical demands of a long season, and to deliver performances in the decisive games that mark the history of this competition. For Arda Güler, however, pressure is not a burden but a privilege. After two years of waiting, of watching from the sidelines, of glimpsing opportunities only to see them vanish, he now faces the competition from the front line, ready to leave his mark. At twenty years old, with the weight of a nation behind him and the trust of one of the most respected coaches in modern football, the stage is set for him to turn potential into reality and to write his own story in the tournament that defines greatness.
