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Turkish winger Emre Mor once stood out as one of Europe’s most exciting prospects when he joined Borussia Dortmund, yet less than a decade later, he has largely slipped to the fringes of top-level football, moving through several clubs without settling and facing repeated questions about his discipline and mentality.
Emre Mor was born in Copenhagen in 1997 and started to play football in local youth teams before joining Danish side FC Nordsjaelland. During the 2015–2016 season, he broke into their first team, scored his first league goal, and quickly drew attention with his close control and acceleration.
He chose to represent Türkiye at the international level and joined the national team in 2016. He joined the squad for Euro 2016 as one of the youngest players at the tournament, which helped him become widely known among European fans.
Around the same time, German club Borussia Dortmund agreed to sign him on a long-term deal for a reported fee of just under €10 million, a figure that underlined how highly he was rated. Commentators in Germany and Türkiye began to describe him as a “wonderkid,” a common term in European football for very young players who are seen as future stars.
At Dortmund, he showed flashes of pace and dribbling in limited appearances in the Bundesliga and the UEFA Champions League. However, he struggled to secure a regular place in the starting eleven, and reports began to mention disagreements in training sessions and difficulties adapting to the demands of a top-level squad.
In 2017, Spanish club Celta Vigo brought him in for a fee of about 13 million euros, one of the highest transfers in their history, hoping that regular playing time in La Liga, Spain’s top division, would allow him to grow. Instead, his stay in Spain became closely associated with discipline and attitude problems.
He often started matches on the bench and rarely played full games. Over time, he reportedly arrived late for training more than once and was left out of matchday squads. His coach, Juan Carlos Unzue, speaking publicly about the situation, said that technical talent alone would not be enough for Mor to play more and added, “There are no miracles and no coincidences. He needs to change mentally.”
The club, at one point, separated him from the main group and asked him to train on his own, and he later had to apologize on social media for arriving late to a session.
These incidents marked a turning point in how coaches and analysts viewed him. The discussion around Mor began to move away from his flair on the ball and towards whether he could fit into a disciplined team structure over an entire season.
In 2019, Celta Vigo agreed to loan Mor to Galatasaray, one of the biggest clubs in Türkiye. The move was seen as a chance to rebuild his confidence under experienced coach Fatih Terim and to use his skills in the Super Lig, the country’s top division.
During the first half of that season, he played in several matches but could not produce goals or assists regularly. As weeks passed, he appeared less often and was eventually left out of league squads despite not carrying any serious injury. Galatasaray decided to end the loan early, and he returned to Celta Vigo after a short spell at the club, with local coverage describing the move as a missed opportunity for both sides.
Shortly afterward, he went on another loan, this time to Greek champions Olympiakos. That period brought only a handful of appearances, and the agreed purchase option was not triggered, so he once again went back to Spain without having secured a long-term role.
Mor’s most convincing period after leaving Dortmund came when he joined Istanbul side Fatih Karagumruk on loan for the 2021–2022 season. At this Super Lig club, which carries a more modest profile than Galatasaray or Fenerbahce, he played more regularly, contributed with goals and assists, and even recorded a hat trick in one match.
This improved form persuaded Fenerbahce to sign him on a permanent deal in 2022. Fenerbahce, one of Türkiye’s traditional “big three,” used him mostly as a rotation and impact player. He featured in league and European fixtures, scored in some games, and offered energy from the bench, yet he still did not fully establish himself as a consistent starter over the course of the season.
As Fenerbahce reshaped its squad, including a high-profile coaching change, Mor once again found himself on the edge of team plans. He returned to Fatih Karagumruk on a short loan and later joined Eyupspor, a club that had recently stepped into the Super Lig and was trying to build a competitive roster.
His time at Eyupspor illustrated the depth of his difficulties. Although he was registered with the club, he did not appear in the first team in official league matches. Public statements mentioned a health problem and treatment with antibiotics and indicated that he would return after recovery. However, reports later suggested that his training attendance was irregular and that he spent time away from the team environment.
Supporters started to ask where he was and why he had not featured at all, while commentators pointed out how rarely such a talented player had been visible on the pitch that season.
By the midpoint of the campaign, he was effectively out of the picture at Eyupspor, while his parent club, Fenerbahce, was already planning for the future without him.
As of 2025, Mor remains under contract with Fenerbahce but does not play an active role in their first team. His deal is scheduled to expire in mid-2025, and he has been linked with potential moves to lower-profile clubs, including teams in the second tier of Turkish football that are aiming to move up to the Super Lig.
Observers note that he is still in his late twenties, an age at which many players reach maturity on the field. His journey from being labelled a Dortmund “wonderkid” to facing an uncertain future shows how repeated changes of club, discipline problems, and fitness concerns can combine to push a once highly rated talent to the margins of top-flight football.
Whether he can use a calmer environment to restart his career will depend on how he approaches the next step, after a decade marked by both impressive flashes and long gaps without regular football.
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