As the legendary Turkey national coach Fatih Terim walks into a room at the Turkish Football Federation facilities in Riva, Istanbul, you can immediately feel his enormous charisma and experience as he sits down for an interview.
Terim pulls up a chair to the backdrop of the training fields extending behind him, where he his team will soon begin final preparations for their Euro 2016 campaign, and says he is particularly pleased with the excellent form of his star player Arda Turan since the Barcelona midfielder resumed his club career in January after missing the first half of the season because of the Catalan club’s transfer ban.  
“Arda can help Barcelona win all three trophies again,” Terim told www.sc.qa in an exclusive interview. “His passes to the front three are very important. It is not easy for Arda after coming back from a long break, but he is used to adapting fast because he is such a big talent. He is a very important player for us, and a very important person for Turkish football. I have been very happy with his form after he started his Barcelona career in January. He is a big player, a good character, and in France I am awaiting a good performance from him because he is our big star.”
Looking ahead to his national team’s preparations for the tournament this summer, Terim added that the friendly match against England on May 22 would take on an important part on the way to France: “My players are working very well, and we have had big success as we have not lost a game in one year. We are preparing for France now, with games against Sweden, Austria and then we head to Antalya and there will be two more games, one of them in England. The draw we got was a Group of Death, with Croatia, Spain and Czech Republic, it is more difficult than the other groups. But we hope to qualify for the second round.”
Looking ahead to the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar, Terim said his side’s November friendly in Doha had given him a good indication of the rapidly advancing preparations in the country.
“It is very important for Qatar to be hosting the tournament as the first Arab and Muslim country. I was in Doha in November for Turkey’s first of back-to-back friendlies against Qatar and Greece. I think Qatar has all the capabilities to host a fantastic tournament. There was great hospitality, even though we were there only for two or three days. I believe it will be a very nice and well organised World Cup. In the meantime we are trying our best to help Qatar on any level we can. Turkey is a Muslim country, so I think we will see a lot of Turkish fans visiting Qatar. We’d also love to be there with the team. When we come there we will be aware of the advantages of playing in a Muslim country.”
Looking back on the recent international match, Terim added that he had been impressed with Qatar’s improvement – and said they would need to continue getting better ahead of 2022: “Qatar were better than I expected, it was a good game and they need to keep improving to reach another level in the World Cup, to be tougher, stronger, as the level of play is very high. Qatar 2022 will be a great organisational success, and the stadiums will be great, but everyone will expect success for the national team as well. I will always be of help to Qatar whenever needed, because it is a country close to our heart." sc.qa