Inside story of Bora Aydınlık’s transfer to Hull City as Acun Ilicali’s persistence pays off
The teenage sensation is hoping to make the grade in East Yorkshire
An evening meeting in Acun Ilicali’s plush Istanbul residence over the summer convinced teenager Bora Aydınlık that a move to Hull City was the next step on what promises to be an exciting journey.
Aydınlık and his father were quickly sold on Ilicali’s vision for City, and the growing determination to make the Tigers a force in English football, and one capable of becoming an established Premier League club.
Those aspirations may lay in wait further down the line, but it was Ilicali’s ambition to haul City out of the Championship and into English football’s top tier that attracted the 18-year-old to join up with Liam Rosenior’s Tigers in advance of the summer transfer window closing last Friday.
Since then, the exciting young winger watched the impressive 1-0 win at Leicester City and trained with Rosenior’s first team squad as they prepare for their return to Championship action post-international break this Friday evening.
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Whether or not he will be considered to be in Rosenior’s squad against Coventry City or indeed the visit of Leeds United next Wednesday remains to be seen, but the teenager is keen to make his mark when the chance comes his way.
“It was great, really intense. It’s a different tempo, different intensity, different cultures, playing styles and it’s nice to see,” he tells Hull Live in his first media interview since arriving in England and on the back of training with Rosenior’s first team squad. “It’s really nice here, I’ve found a nice place in Beverley, it’s a nice town, I really liked it a lot and I’m looking forward to my time here.
“We actually talked with Mr Acun. He invited me to his office in Istanbul, I went there with my dad and we talked to him about what could happen, about this project, about what he wants to do with the club and it really interested me a lot, it interested Mr Acun and the energy between us was good, we liked each other a lot and then it went from there.
“He talks really good (about the club) and you probably know it as well. He’s really well loved in Turkiye, we love him a lot, he’s a really nice person, he talked about the club, what he wants to do and he wants to succeed.
“He wants Hull City to go to the Premier League and I was really interested in the idea as well. Hull City being a different team, in the Championship and in England where you can see different cultures, learn a lot more, can be seen a lot more and I was really interested.
“Everybody in Turkiye likes Mr Acun, as a TV presenter, as a person, so when he bought the club there was a lot of sympathy and interest in Hull City because of Mr Acun. Everybody now talks about Hull City, and with the transfers of Dogukan (Sinik), Ozan (Tufan), there are players that are big names in Turkiye, so it gets a lot more media coverage, people want to watch the games and are interested in the scores, it’s really positive.”
Aydınlık’s first taste of action on British shores came on Saturday afternoon when he came off the bench in the final minute of the Under-21s thumping 4-0 win over Bournemouth at the MKM Stadium, and with games coming thick and fast, he hopes to quickly get up-to-speed working with the fitness coaches on a specially adapted training programme.
“It was really nice to see a different kind of league, a different type of playing style. I couldn’t get a lot of minutes, but I wasn’t supposed to play,” he said.
“They have a separate programme for me and after that we should see if I’m with the first team or the Under-21s, it doesn’t matter, I came here to play, I came here to win, that’s the most important thing, I want to win.
“I was with Fenerbahce’s pre-season so physically I’m good, I can say that, but it’s a different kind of tempo and intensity here so the coaches know best, I trust them to do what’s best for me and for the club, so we shall see.”
The US-born talent watched from behind the dugout as Liam Delap thumped in the winner at Leicester, a performance he admits to being impressed by.
Watching that performance only whetted the appetite for a first team opportunity to come his way, though he knows patience will be required before Rosenior allows him exposure.
“We showed our character away at Leicester. It was really intense, the ball didn’t go out of play a lot, and that was nice, but I think I can play everywhere,” he said of City’s showing in the East Midlands.
“We played out from the goalkeeper which is what the coach wants us to do, we showed character, a big work rate and even if somebody lost the ball, we put a lot of bodies in the way and they could not score, as everybody saw, there was a big character.
