Beşiktaş announces Quaresma talks, fan group Çarşı will not celebrate

ISTANBUL

AFP photo

Turkey’s Beşiktaş announced it has begun transfer talks with former winger Ricardo Quaresma, though the Portuguese international will not receive a warm hug on his possible return to Istanbul, as his beloved Çarşı fan group has canceled a ceremony following a deadly bomb attack in the southeast of the country. 

“Negotiations with Quaresma and his club FC Porto for the transfer have begun,” Beşiktaş said, in a filing to the stock exchange July 21, finalizing a lingering debate on the return much awaited by the fans. 

However, Çarşı, the Beşiktaş fan group known for their involvement in many political and environmental issues along with passionate support for the Black and Whites, said in a tweet the welcome ceremony for Quaresma had been canceled. 

“The massacre in Suruç has burnt our hearts,” the tweet read, in reference to the July 20 blast, apparently by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on a group set to travel to a war-torn Syrian town on the Turkish border, where they would deliver toys and books. At least 31, mostly socialist young people, were killed in the attack that shook the country, as dozens are still receiving treatment at hospitals. 

Despite the welcome cancelation, fans seem very happy with the move, as a recent social media spree shows. 

Çarşı was very effective in Quaresma’s signing to Beşiktaş in the summer of 2010, with endless calls to the club management to shake hands with the “trivela-man.” 

The superstar fell out of favor after refusing the cash-strapped club’s offer of a salary cut and he was not used by the club in 2010 before he left the country on Dec. 20, 2012, for Dubai’s Al Ahly. 

Quaresma returned to Porto last season, for which he had played between 2004 and 2008, reaching the quarterfinals at the UEFA Champions League.