Football General Manager
- Duran joins Fenerbahce on loan
- Reports of falling out with Mourinho
- Turkish club respond to rumours
According to Spanish publication Marca Mourinho gave an angry interview to reporters after Duran was absent for the first day of Fenerbahce’s pre-season following his loan move from Al-Nassr. The Spanish outlet attributed quotes to the head coach calling the striker “disrespectful”, but Fenerbahce have stressed that the statement is “completely false”.
A Fenerbahce spokesperson said: “The statements made by our manager Jose Mourinho in the foreign press regarding our player Jhon Duran are completely false. Our manager has not made a statement on the matter. Our player arrived in Portugal this evening to join our team’s Algarve camp.”
Marca added that the 21-year-old had several ‘tense episodes’ during his time at Aston Villa and Al-Nassr but Fenerbahce have taken the bold step to quash any rumours of a feud between Duran and Mourinho, although it is still claimed that the Portuguese was irked by the new man’s absence on day one of pre-season. It is not clear whether it was pre-agreed for him to arrive later. This is a statement signing by the Turkish side, and it is clear they don’t want to get off on the wrong foot as they try and usurp Galatasaray as the league’s top dog.
Colombia international Duran will hope to hit the ground running as he prepares for the new season with Fener. The striker had a troubled spell at Al-Nassr in the second half of last season and now he will hope to put that behind him in Turkey.
