BARCELONA (Reuters) - Galatasaray are trying to bring out-of-favour Barcelona forward Arda Turan back to the Turkish club, president Dursun Ozbek said on Tuesday.
Arda, who made his professional debut for Galatasaray in 2004 and stayed at the club until joining Atletico Madrid in 2011, was an unused substitute in Barcelona's 5-0 friendly win over Chapecoense on Monday, even though coach Ernesto Valverde made 11 changes.
His exclusion has been reported in the Spanish media as a sign the Turk does not feature in Valverde's plans for the season and that he is on his way out of Barca.
"Arda is a Galatasaray fan, he really loves the club and he is going to play for us again," Ozbek told a news conference on Tuesday. "His only chance of playing in Turkey is here, and we hope he ends up seeing out his career at Galatasaray. We are working on his transfer."
Arda has scored 15 goals in 55 appearances for Barca but has failed to hold down a first team place at Barca since switching from Atletico Madrid in 2015 for 34 million euros.
He made 14 league starts last season. His progress in his first campaign was stunted because he was banned from playing the first half of the 2014/15 season by the club's existing transfer ban.
Galatasaray are Turkey's most successful club with 20 league titles, but they finished fourth in the top flight last season, 13 points behind champions Besiktas.
(Reporting by Richard Martin, editing by Larry King)
