REPORT: £43M Rated Turkish Star Now Seen As ‘Primary Target’ To Replace Casemiro

BACK David Tully Mar 25th 2026 Besiktas captain Orkun Kokcu has emerged as a “primary target” for Man Utd, according to reports. Turkish-football.com claim that the Benfica loanee is being lined up as a potential replacement for Casemiro. Kokcu will join Besiktas on a permanent basis in a deal worth €30m (£26m) at the end of this season. However, it appears that the Turkish Super Lig side would be willing to sell him on for a profit, with his asking price reportedly set at €50m (£43m). What do fans need to know about Kokcu? The midfielder was born in the Netherlands and came through the youth ranks of Feyenoord. He made 175 senior appearances for the Dutch club before making the switch to Benfica in the summer of 2023. Kokcu performed pretty well in his two seasons at the Portuguese giants, but Besiktas offered him the chance of moving to Turkey last summer. He chose to switch nationality to Turkey pretty early in his career, receiving caps at Under 21 level before getting his first senior call-up in 2020. The switch to Besiktas (initially on loan), therefore, seemed a natural fit. This campaign, he has racked up 7 goals and 8 assists in 32 matches. Casemiro is expected to leave Man Utd It was officially announced back in January that the Brazilian would depart at the end of the season. His performances in recent months have, though, led many to question whether that was the right decision. The fact that the Red Devils asked for the removal of a one-year contract extension, which would have been automatically triggered if Casemiro started 35 league games, suggests that his departure is all but inevitable. Whether Kokcu is actually being eyed as the 34-year-old’s replacement, we shall have to wait and see. He is now on a long list of midfielders who have been linked with a move to Old Trafford over the past few weeks. Want more news on Man Utd? Add Man U News as a preferred source on Google David Tully David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for the Football News Network.