Official: Riyadh Victory center Duran joins Fenerbahce on loan for one season
2025-07-07 04:45
Fenerbahçe officially announced that it will loan John Duran from Al-Qaeda for one season starting today. It is not yet known whether the contract contains a buyout clause.
Riyadh Victory had a poor performance in the Saudi League last season, ranking third with only 70 points after 34 rounds. They also performed poorly in the Asian Champions League, losing to Kawasaki Frontale in the semi-finals.
Despite this, Duran's offensive efficiency in Riyadh Victory remains quite stable. Since joining from Villa for 77 million euros in January this year, he has played 18 times for Riyadh Victory and scored 12 goals.
According to previous news, Fenerbahce's loan fee for Duran is about 16 million euros, and will bear his annual salary of up to 19 million euros. Duran's contract at Riyadh Victory was originally scheduled to expire in 2030.
The 21-year-old Duran is an outstanding representative of the new generation of center forwards in Colombia. He has previously played for Envigado, Chicago Fire and Aston Villa. He has also played 17 times for the Colombian national team, scoring 3 goals and 1 assist.
There are rumors that Duran's departure may be one of the measures taken by Riyadh Victory to ease Cristiano Ronaldo's annual salary burden of 183 million euros and control overall wage expenditure. He is also regarded by Fenerbahce coach Jose Mourinho as an ideal candidate for strengthening the striker, and the team ranked second in the Turkish Super League standings last season.
