Wilfred Ndidi suddenly reunited with £25m former Leicester City teammate in Turkey

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When Wilfred Ndidi completed his move to Turkish giants Besiktas over the summer, that meant only three members of Leicester City’s 2021 FA Cup-winning squad would remain at the King Power Stadium.

Ricardo Pereira, Hamza Choudhury and Luke Thomas.

It’s been quite the reshuffle. Though, for a club who have gone from FA Cup and Community Shield winners to suffering relegation not once but twice in that four year spell, it should come as no real surprise that considerable churn on the pitch has coincided with countless changes to the playing squad.

Wilfred Ndidi left Leicester for Besiktas in a deal worth £9 million over the summer, the latest Wembley champion to depart after James Maddison, Jonny Evans, Youri Tielemans and co.

Fittingly, for a midfielder who saw plenty of comings and goings at the King Power Stadium, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would lose his job only a few weeks after Ndidi put pen to paper.

Sergen Yelcin returned to take Solskjaer’s place on August 30th. His first signing since of the post-Ole era at the Vodafone Arena, meanwhile, is a forward Ndidi knows very well indeed; Former Leicester City loanee Cengiz Under.

Cengiz Under excited to join former Leicester City teammate Wilfred Ndidi at Besiktas

While Wilfred Ndidi had interest from the Premier League and Bundesliga before opting for Turkey, Cengiz Under returns to his homeland hoping to kickstart a career which has stalled in recent times.

In quotes reported by Milliyet, the former Roma, Marseille and Fenerbahce forward is pleased to be welcomed at Besiktas by a familiar face.

He also opens up on why that loan spell at the King Power in 2020/21 proved to be a disappointment, Under managing only nine Premier League appearances without managing a single goal.

“I played with Wilfred Ndidi for a year,” says a now-28-year-old Under. “He’s a very strong, tough player. He was one of the key players on the team back then.

“Years later, we’ll be playing together again on the same team. I’m excited about that. He’s an aggressive player, and his aggressiveness is very important to us. I hope we can do great things together on the pitch.

“My biggest goal was to play in Europe. That’s why, even as a young player, I could say these things so easily,” adds a man with 51 caps for the Turkish national team. “When I transferred to Europe, I didn’t know the language.

“This was a completely different experience for me. Because even though it was difficult, I was able to learn everything when I got there. It was wonderful.

“I knew the Italian league was tough. I understood this better when I went there [joining Roma in 2017]. Also, the Italian league is very different in terms of tactics. We would constantly work on tactics from week to week.

“After that, I went to England. In England, the game was played at a higher tempo.”

Besiktas newbie Under played his part in Leicester’s FA Cup success

Leicester City had the option to sign Under permanently five years ago to the tune of around £25 million.

Unsurprisingly, this is an option the Foxes decided against, though Cengiz Under did play his part in that aforementioned FA Cup triumph of four years ago.

While a hip injury denied him a place in Brendan Rodgers’ squad on the day when Youri Tielemans printed his name in bold letters in Leicester folklore, Wembley might have remained a pipe dream if not for Under turning around that 3-1 comeback victory over Brentford as early as the fourth round.