The 19-year-old starter due to Audero’s injury. “At the age of 6 I dreamed of becoming a music star. In goal by chance, I was a ball boy at Oblak, in Parma I trained with my idol Buffon, now the best would be to save for Slovenia”
Flying is in his DNA. As a child he floated on a parquet in time with music. He dreamed of a future as a hip hop star. But eventually he became a soccer goalkeeper. Martin Turk is 19 years old and in Slovenia he is labeled by many as the new Oblak. In December he was still in C, on the bench at Reggiana. Yesterday evening he made his debut in Serie A against Juventus, the team in which his football father, Gianluigi Buffon, partner in the department at the time of Parma, has become a legend. It doesn’t matter for the four goals scored by Rabiot and his companions. The young Sampdoria goalkeeper has shown glimpses of his potential. “They call me ‘Iceman’ because I’m cold on the pitch: I know how to manage emotions and I don’t let them influence me, I go straight even if I make a mistake, because then it’s all over – said the 2003 class in an interview with Chronicles of the Dressing Room -. My secret? I believe in God and destiny. Before every game I make the sign of the cross. And I always enter the field with my right foot”.
FROM KOPER TO GENOA
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Its story begins about twenty kilometers from Trieste, near the most important port in Slovenia. Turk is from Capodistria, a city of Greek foundation but Venetian for five centuries. “At school I studied Italian, I grew up watching Buffon’s deeds”. At the age of six he fell in love with dance. Merit of an advertisement seen on a shop TV. “There were so many people dancing, laughing and joking. I pulled at my mom’s jacket, explaining that I wanted to dance.” No sooner said than done. Turk dances for a year. “I had a lot of fun.” The conversion to football is thanks to his best friend. “He pressed me to go to training with him and I finally gave in.” After all, football is a family matter: “My brother was a good full-back. Dad is a firefighter and has served as an amateur”. At the age of 7, Turk began playing for Jadran Dekani. “At first I wasn’t even a goalkeeper. A couple of weeks after my arrival, the coach asked us who would like to try in goal. They were all looking at the floor, so I proposed. In the first half I made a couple of good saves and never went out.” It is the beginning of the ascent. He shines in the various youth tournaments and wins the call of Koper, the Capodistria team. “At 13 I was already training with the first team”. There he meets the goalkeeper coach Robert Volk, the discoverer of Jan Oblak, the number one of Slovenia (and of Atletico Madrid). Small anecdote: “In 2016 the national team played in Koper against Macedonia and I was Oblak’s ball boy”. Meanwhile Turk starts playing his first international trophies. “We won the Tournament of Nations in Portugal. And with me there was also Sesko, now a star from Salzburg”. In 2019 the call from Parma. “They took me after three tryouts with Roma and one with Genoa.” He starts from the youth teams but soon makes his way through the big ones. In October 2020, the first bench in Serie A, at the age of 17, against Inter.
HANDA E SUPER DENTAL
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“In the belly of San Siro I met my compatriot Handanovic: Samir was angry for having conceded two goals from Gervinho. We talked, he gave me some advice and of course his shirt, which I keep as a relic ”. The other great goalkeeper linked to Turk is Buffon: “The first time I saw him in training camp I didn’t know whether to call him you or her. As soon as I shook his hand, I called my parents in Slovenia: I was thrilled”. A special relationship is established between the two, made up of advice and suggestions. “His son is from 2004, a year younger than me. Buffon has always encouraged me to give my best: I still keep the messages he wrote to me after his debut in Serie B ”. The debut is dated February 2022: draw and clean sheet against Pisa. Last summer Turk ends up on loan in Serie C, at Reggiana. He starts well. But from October onwards he finds less and less space in Diana’s starting eleven. And in January he made the triple jump, loaned to Sampdoria, where he is now called to replace the injured Audero: “I have a winning mentality and I always want to improve. I feel confident between the posts, but I have to grow in setting up and with the ball at my feet. My dream? Playing for the senior national team of Slovenia”.
March 13 – 15:34
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