Aged 15 years, 09 months & 25 days, Emre Demir became the youngest ever goalscorer in the Turkish Süper Lig in 2019, beating the previous record held by Enes Ünal by six months. He was already the third-youngest player to play in the league having made his debut aged just 15 years, 04 months & 04 days, so it was clear at the time he was a special player.
Demir went on to play over 500 league minutes in the 2019/20 season. Last season, he was on the pitch just over 200 minutes in the league despite his good performances in the cup, where he scored two goals in just 166 minutes. Finally, this season he hasn’t played yet, making the bench for every match so far.
Despite the hype having come down since his debut, Barcelona decided to buy Demir for two million euros and he’s expected to join the La Liga giants either in January 2022 when he turns 18 or next summer. In this tactical analysis, we’ll see what attracted Barcelona enough to anticipate teams in the EPL and get the young star.
Data analysis and profiling
Demir is a left-footed attacking midfielder who can play in different roles depending on his team’s tactics. He’s quick and agile but weak in duels. Anyway, he seems to have a good frame and will surely get stronger with time but struggles in duels at the moment.
The data profile above is from the 2019/20 season, in which he played 554 minutes for Kayserispor’s first team, the most in a single season so far from him. To add some context, Kayserispor finished the season in the 17th position out of 18 teams and only the pandemics prevented them from being relegated so it wasn’t an easy place to shine for a 15-year-old player.
