Spurs stories | Les Ferdinand on his time in Istanbul: "It made me a man, made me a footballer"

Les Ferdinand broke new ground when he took a flight from London to Istanbul, Turkey's bustling, football-mad capital city, to join Besiktas on loan in 1988. Thirty six years later, we'll take the same flight for our UEFA Europa League fixture against Galatasaray this week.

Signed by former Liverpool player Gordon Milne, Les was in his early days as a striker at QPR, and seen by Milne as the player whose goals could take Besiktas to the Turkish title, having finished runners-up to Galatasaray for the previous two seasons.

Les, 21 at the time, certainly delivered on his part of the deal with 14 goals in 24 league games and 18 in all competitions, including a goal in the first leg of the Turkish Cup Final, as Besiktas toppled Fenerbache. However, they finished runners-up in the title again, this time to Fenerbache, but they wouldn't have to wait long - Milne would guide them to title glory in the next three seasons.

It's an experience Les always speaks fondly of, and spoke about at length with Michael Dawson on his appearance on our official Off The Shelf podcast earlier this year...

Les: “I'd always seen football as England's national sport. We were the creators, we were this, we were that, and we were supported so heavily around the country, every team supported well. Then I went out to Turkey.... I was fortunate, I played for Besiktas, one of the bigger clubs out there at the time. You have Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas all in Istanbul. I arrived at the airport and you've seen in the past, teams would arrive there to play in the Champions League or UEFA Cup and there signs saying, 'welcome to hell', and all that, but when I got there, there were also loads of fans there and I'm thinking, 'who are they here for?' They followed us all the way back to the clubhouse. I was thinking, 'I'm only playing reserve football at QPR!' but at the time they had such a high regard for English football, they felt, 'this kid is here to do something'...

Les: "I always say to people, my first training session, I arrived in Istanbul on a Sunday, went to the hotel with Gordon Milne, who was the manager at the time, and he said to me, 'Les, we've got a little training session later on at the main ground', and said it's a thing that they do every year, they introduced the new players. So, we went to the main ground and as I'm getting closer, I could hear this chant and I'm thinking, 'what's going on?' and Istanbul is a busy place anyway, but we get to the stadium and go out and there's 35,000 people watching the first day's training. And I thought, 'what have I come to?' To be fair, for the whole year that I was there, it was the making of me as a footballer. It was making me as a man and the making me as a footballer. I was 21 when I went over there. At the time, I was the first British player to ever play in Turkey. At the time, it wasn't kind of like the done thing for British players to go abroad. The people out there were absolutely fantastic, you know, made me feel at home. I couldn't have asked for a better experience...

Les: "Gordon Milne brought me over because they'd finished second in the league the year before and he felt if they'd bring a striker in who could supply some more goals, that they'd had a chance of winning the league. We played Fenerbahçe, I think, four or five times in that season, they beat us only once but they ended up winning the title. So, we didn't quite win the league, but we won the equivalent of the FA Cup out there. Do you know, at one stage, they were in the Guinness Book of Records for the most noise made at any one stadium. They're so loud and passionate, it was unbelievable. Sometimes you'd be there in, the noise, and they used to shout, 'siyah', and the other end used to go 'beyaz', which is 'black' and 'white'. One side would say black, the other side would say white, and it would get quicker and quicker and quicker. Just amazing.”