Arda Guler has had a dismal start to his career at Real Madrid ever since his move to European royalty in the 2023 summer transfer window. The teenager broke through at Fenerbahce, becoming their youngest goal-scorer in Super Lig history and delivering 13 goal contributions in the 2022/23 season.
The Turkish midfielder decided to reject advances from FC Barcelona for his services, instead choosing to spend his key developmental years at Madrid. However, Guler has almost been cursed by bad luck ever since joining the La Liga heavyweights.
The teenager has been ravaged by injury problems all through the first half of the 2023/24 season and is yet to make his official debut for Real Madrid. There is still no exact explanation for the root cause of these injuries. Guler might not be accustomed to the intensity of Real Madrid’s training sessions and that might be causing his issues.
Guler has been plagued by injury troubles all over the last few months. He’s already missed over 16 matches for Real Madrid with his injury troubles, mostly suffering from muscle injuries sustained in training. Amid this, one particularly weird picture of Guler is now going around the internet as the newest meme.
This meme is just a smiling Guler with a face full of facial hair. Basically, this is a dig at the Turkish midfielder for spending so much time out on the sidelines that he has forgotten to shave and let himself go, resulting in the thick beard.
This meme is often used around Football Twitter to take a dig at a player’s injury-prone nature or just for someone sitting on the bench for too long. He is also being trolled for looking similar to former Real Madrid midfielder Isco, who saw his career at the club hampered by injuries.
Guler has also been unfortunate enough to be mocked as the ideal replacement for Eden Hazard in the Real Madrid medical room, with the Belgian forward having to recently retire from football after seeing his career torn apart by injuries.
With that being said, this circulating picture of Guler with a fully-grown beard is obviously photoshopped. The original picture was actually taken when the Turkish teenager sat on the bench for a match and decided to smile for the cameras in front of him. This was all before the injury problems started to affect him and hold him back from playing for Real Madrid.
Guler has never really been one to grow some prominent facial hair, at least not since he started gaining popularity as a footballer. Irrespective, he is unlikely to be able to organically grow such a full-grown beard at the age of 18 anyway and doesn’t even seem that bothered to try to do so.
Despite that, the Turkish midfielder is clearly upset at not being able to play for Rael Madrid so far. Carlo Ancelotti spoke about his mental stage last month, saying: “The first injury was a torn meniscus which he had from last year. That’s very common when you have meniscus problems because it changes your posture and you can have injuries in your other leg because of that and have muscular injuries.
“That’s what’s happening to Güler. His future is very beautiful, he’s got a great talent. I understand that he’s disappointed, but it’s a minor injury and I have the experience, when I was 21 I was injured and I came back. Güler’s future is not in doubt and he can recover for after the international break.”
The good thing for Guler is that there is a light appearing at the end of this dark period for him. Ancelotti gave a promising update recently on when the 18-year-old can make his debut for Los Blancos, saying: “Guler is in the final part of his recovery. Next week, he will start with high intensity and will be ready for the last games of the year or the beginning of next year.”
Guler has recently been pictured in Real Madrid’s training session taking it nice and easy when it comes to working on his recovery. He does not have a face full of beard and is instead focused on getting back to full fitness rather than letting depression get the better of him.
