Berke Özer’s World Cup Omission Raises Questions After Ligue 1 Clean Sheet Lead
By Bosphorus News Sports Desk
Berke Özer finished the Ligue 1 season at the top of the clean sheet table, produced one of Europe's most dramatic goalkeeping performances of the year, and still missed out on Türkiye's 2026 FIFA World Cup squad.
The Lille goalkeeper's omission has turned into one of the sharpest selection debates around the national team. The sporting file is difficult to ignore: Berke led Ligue 1 with 13 clean sheets in 32 matches for Lille, ahead of Dominik Greif, Hervé Koffi and Robin Risser, according to Transfermarkt's 2025-26 clean sheet table.
That is a rare season for a Turkish goalkeeper abroad. Berke was not protecting a record in a marginal league or a secondary competition. He was doing it in France's top flight, at a club fighting through a demanding domestic and European calendar.
His domestic form was not a one-match story either. As Bosphorus News noted after Berke Özer's clean sheet display against Le Havre, his Lille season had already been building around consistency, command of the box and match-winning interventions.
His case is not limited to league clean sheets. In October 2025, Berke delivered a remarkable Europa League performance against Roma, saving three consecutive penalties in Lille's 1-0 win at the Stadio Olimpico. Reuters reported that he first denied Artem Dovbyk twice, after retaken penalties, before stopping Matias Soulé's third attempt to secure the victory.
Bosphorus News had already detailed that night as Berke Özer's historic penalty run for Lille, a performance that turned him into one of the most discussed Turkish players in Europe that week.
Together, the numbers and the moments give Berke a stronger public case than statistics alone. A goalkeeper who leads Ligue 1 in clean sheets and decides a European match with three penalty saves has built a performance argument that cannot be dismissed as noise.
Yet Berke was not included when Türkiye's World Cup squad was announced. The omission drew attention because the goalkeeper position had already been sensitive around the national team, and because his club season gave supporters a direct question: if form matters, how does the Ligue 1 clean sheet leader remain outside the squad?
The answer may not sit only on the pitch. Berke's national team file was complicated in October 2025, when he left the camp after the Bulgaria Türkiye fixture. The Turkish Football Federation later said Muhammed Şengezer had been called up after Berke's departure from the squad.
That episode still shadows the selection debate. Coaches do not select World Cup squads through statistics alone. Trust, hierarchy, discipline, dressing room balance and response to internal decisions matter, especially before a tournament.
But the scale of Berke's season makes the decision harder to frame as a purely sporting call. If the omission is disciplinary, the federation has not fully presented it that way in the World Cup context. If it is sporting, the numbers invite scrutiny.
Clean sheets do not measure a goalkeeper alone. They depend on defensive structure, shot quality, game state and the team in front of him. But they still carry weight in selection debates, especially when a Turkish goalkeeper finishes first in Ligue 1 and adds a high-profile European penalty performance to the same season.
Türkiye may have decided that the October camp issue outweighed the numbers. That is a legitimate coaching calculation if discipline and internal trust are treated as non-negotiable. It also comes with a cost: the national team is going to the World Cup without the goalkeeper who led Ligue 1 in clean sheets.
The Berke Özer debate is therefore not only about one name on a squad list. It is about how Türkiye weighs European club performance against national team discipline, and whether the criteria are being explained clearly enough to the public. On the pitch, Berke built the strongest argument available to him. Off the pitch, the federation appears to have made a different calculation.
***Sources: Turkish Football Federation, Transfermarkt Ligue 1 clean sheet table, Reuters, Bosphorus News archive, Turkish media reports.