It was an easy decision, the former Rangers man said, when leaving Ibrox for a fresh start far away from Scottish football last summer.
A penny for Borna Barisic’s thoughts now.
Because, alongside former Rangers teammate John Lundstram, a move that was supposed to bring about a title charge – or a European push at the least – in a brand new league and a new culture after so many seasons at Ibrox is instead descending pretty rapidly into a bitter fight for survival.
Barisic and Lundstram joined Trabzonspor on the back of an impressive third-place finish in 2023/24. In fact, the Black Sea outfit even won the Super Lig as recently as 2022.
But lose against reigning champions Galatasaray on Monday – it would be a major surprise if they didn’t at this stage – and Trabzonspor could find themselves only two points above the relegation zone.
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Former Rangers duo Borna Barisic and John Lundstram in Trabzonspor nightmare
Barisic, then, may think of himself as a little fortunate that he has played such a minimal role in this remarkable race to the bottom. The Croatia international – released in July after six years and nearly 250 Rangers appearances – has not started a single league match since the opening weekend of the Super Lig campaign.
Coach Senol Gunes is clearly not a fan. Given that his Trabzonspor predecessor Abdullah Avci labelled Barisic’s signing a ‘masterstroke’, the Croatian is probably the player most negatively affected by that change in the dugout.
Lundstram has featured far more regularly, if not exactly successfully.
Trabzonspor have won only one of their last six matches, thrashing Adana Demirspor 5-0. But, as luck would have it, that was the game Lundstram missed through illness.
President Ertugrul Dogan is not pushing the panic button just yet, however. This season was always supposed to be the first of a three-year plan under Senol Gunes, one of the most respected and successful coaches in Turkey’s modern history.
“We are aware that we are going through a difficult process in terms of sports,” Dogan says in the official Trabzonspor magazine. “However, great successes come with great transformations.
“Within the framework of the three-year plan we started under the leadership of our teacher Senol Gunes, we are moving forward with the goal of recovery in the first year, renewal in the second year and sustainable success in the third year.”
Trabzonspor were warned against signing Borna Barisic
Right now, ‘renewal’ feels rather fanciful at Trabzonspor, let alone ‘sustainable success’. Across their last 18 games in all competitions, Gunes’ team have won a grand total of three.
Their Europa Conference League campaign, meanwhile, ended before it even begun. Trabzonspor were knocked out in the qualifiers by St Gallen.
Things were not supposed to be like this. Not after Trabzonspor brought in not only Barisic and Lundstram, but also Romania international attacker Denis Dragus, experienced midfield duo Okay Yokuslu and Ozan Tufan, and also former Manchester City and Atletico Madrid defender Stefan Savic.
“Trabzonspor has not been able to get the desired efficiency from its new transfers,” reporter Erdogan Bekar writes in Karadeniz de Sonnokta. “Players who were transferred with great hopes are causing great disappointment.”
Bekar is not all that surprised to see Barisic struggle, however, having watched the 32-year-old fall behind Turkey ace Ridvan Yilmaz in the Rangers pecking order last season.
“One of the players who could not contribute to the claret and blue team at all is Borna Barisic,” Bekar adds. “I had warned [against signing Barisic] when he first came up.
“I had mentioned that it would be a big mistake to sign a left-back whose place in the team was [taken by] Ridvan Yilmaz.
“Has anyone seen this Croatian player now?”
