During Sunday night’s UEFA Nations League match between Hungary and Turkey, Dominik Szoboszlai and Arda Guler got into a fight. Despite playing the entire ninety minutes, Liverpool great Szoboszlai was powerless to stop Hungary from losing 3-0 in Budapest.
In the 37th minute, Hakan Calhanoglu gave Turkey the lead with a penalty kick, and Guler quickly doubled the lead for the visitors. Shortly before halftime, Abdulkerim Bardakci gave Turkey a third goal, adding glitz to the scoreline.
At one point during the game, Szoboszlai and Guler, the Real Madrid sensation who is regarded as one of the most promising young players in international football, clashed. Guler, 20, was observed shushing his opponent, 24, by putting a finger to his mouth.
Meaning Behind Szoboszlai’s ‘1088’ Comment
Subtle dig at Arda Guler’s lack of playing time this season
There's nothing worse than a bench warmer being arrogant
Szoboszlai has more goals than Guler has starts pic.twitter.com/r77gadM6j1
— Brian (@Bri_an2) March 23, 2025
After the game, keen-eyed supporters saw that Szoboszlai had posted a screenshot of the incident along with a brief, provocative remark on Instagram. “1088” is what Szoboszlai wrote.
Detectives on social media started to work right once, and soon they discovered the apparent intent of the “insult.” Using Transfermarkt’s data, Szoboszlai seems to have observed that Guler has only contributed 1088 minutes to Real Madrid’s season.
🚨😳 Dominik Szoboszlai comments on IG on a post of Arda Güler making the 'shut up' gesture towards Szoboszlai: "1,088'"
1,088 is the number of minutes Arda Güler has played this season. pic.twitter.com/akdEsPUqt1
— The Touchline | Football Coverage (@TouchlineX) March 24, 2025
Guler has played 644 minutes in 18 La Liga games for Real Madrid so far this season. In addition to playing 300 minutes in the Copa del Rey and 142 minutes in Madrid’s UEFA Champions League campaign thus far, he also made a brief appearance in the UEFA Super Cup against Atalanta in August.
One fan wrote, “This is the level of hater I aspire to be. Szoboszlai went straight into the dressing room and Googled how many minutes Arda Guler has played this season.” Szoboszlai was obviously ordering Guler to shut up with this.
Since then, Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that Szoboszlai’s comment was motivated by this. A cheeky, if inventive, means of retaliating against Guler.
🚨 Arda Güler was shushing Szoboszlai after scoring in 3-0 win for Turkey…
…and then Szobo replied on social media by responding “𝟏𝟎𝟖𝟖”, the amount of minutes Arda played this year for Real Madrid. pic.twitter.com/bFGiA2KkmN
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 24, 2025
Calls For Arda Guler to Play More Minutes
Talented youngster has struggled for game time
There has been much discussion about Guler’s lack of playing time this season. Recently, Calhanoglu came out and demanded that his international teammate be given more playing time at the club level. “I don’t know what his situation is at Real Madrid, so I don’t want to get too involved in this situation because in the end, he knows more, although of course I want and believe he deserves to play more minutes,” the midfielder stated, according to the Daily Mail.
Vincenzo Montella, the head coach of Turkey, added: “His temperament and mentality have greatly improved. He is here with us because to his extraordinary talent, and he has learnt to fight and battle.
Szoboszlai has played 2,887 minutes for Liverpool so far this season and has further improved his reputation by putting up a number of strong midfield performances with players like Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch. It is anticipated that the former RB Leipzig player, who has already earned 53 caps for Hungary, and his Liverpool colleagues will win the Premier League at the end of the current campaign.
xz
