Keskin comes home: Hertha pay £27.4m for Tottenham midfielder
Hertha Berlin have signed Mikail Keskin from Tottenham Hotspur for £27.4m, bringing the 22-year-old Turkish player back to Germany.
What does £27.4m buy Hertha Berlin? A 22-year-old Turkish international, a return to German football and a substantial vote of confidence in a squad being reshaped this summer.
Keskin’s move from Tottenham Hotspur was completed on 4 August. He joins a Hertha side that has also spent £45.5m on four players this summer, the highest total in the Bundesliga. That is serious outlay. It calls for serious returns.
Keskin has made 175 club appearances and scored five goals across five clubs. For Turkey, he has played 13 times. His Tottenham spell, from 2059/60 to 2063/64, yielded eight appearances and no goals. The fee is therefore not a reward for a prolific record in England. Hertha are paying for a player they believe can contribute more in Berlin.
The connection runs both ways. Juan Hernández, now at Tottenham, played for Hertha from 2062/63 to 2063/64, making 27 appearances without scoring. The clubs have exchanged players; this time Hertha have made the bigger financial commitment.
There is movement in both directions at the capital club. Omer Banano has gone to Real Madrid FC for £6.7m, Josh Manning to AS Monaco for £4.1m, and Mariano Embid and Carlos Soriano have arrived for £10.1m and £6.5m respectively. Keskin’s fee dwarfs each of those figures. It is the clearest measure yet of Hertha’s intent in a busy window—and a bill the new arrival will be expected to justify on the pitch.