Former Arsenal star Emmanuel Adebayor and ex-Chelsea striker Demba Ba joined Turkish top flight sides Medipol Basaksehir and Besiktas respectively.
Basaksehir, surprise contenders for this year’s league title, announced that the 32-year-old former Arsenal, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur forward Adebayor was joining the club on its official Instagram page, posting a picture of the player undergoing a medical.
Club chairman Mustafa Seral told the Anadolu news agency that Adebayor was arriving on a one and a half year contract and would make a “major contribution”.
Financial details have yet to be disclosed.
The player has been without a club since leaving Crystal Palace at the end of last season. But he skippered Togo at the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon this month where the country exited at the group stage.
Adebayor, who spent most of the past decade in England, had previously hinted that he could push for a move back to the Premier League.
Formerly known as Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediyesi Spor (IBB), the club changed their name in 2014 to Basaksehir and have seen a major surge in fortunes.
They are proving a worthy rival to the traditional dominant Istanbul trio of Galatasaray, Besiktas and Fenerbahce and have led the Turkish Super Lig for much of this season.
After the latest round of games, they are now in second place, two points behind leaders Besiktas, and remain in contention for a first ever Super Lig title.
Ba rejoined his former Turkish club Besiktas until the end of the season from Shanghai Shenhua of China.
Besiktas said in a statement that the deal agreed with the player and Chinese club was a “temporary transfer” and adding no payment was involved.
“Welcome back Demba Ba!” the Istanbul club wrote on its Twitter account. His contract runs until May 31.
Ba was a standout performer for Besiktas in the 2014/2015 season, and a favourite with the club’s famously impassioned fans.
He signed for Shanghai Shenhua in June 2015 to the disappointment of many Besiktas fans but was replaced by German international Mario Gomez, who was the league top scorer in Besiktas’ title-winning 2015/2016 season.
With Gomez now departed, league leaders Besiktas are in need of a reliable hitman in front of goal to retain the title.
Ba has not played since suffering a broken leg while playing in China in July 2016 but has been able to recover after successful surgery.
Before first joining Besiktas in 2014, Ba enjoyed fruitful stints with West Ham, Newcastle and Chelsea in the English premiership.
He is remembered for his goal for Chelsea against Liverpool at the season end in 2014, helped by a notorious slip by Steven Gerrard that effectively cost Liverpool the title.
There was talk that Ba could reunite with his former Besiktas boss Slaven Bilic at West Ham in the Premier League but in the end he opted for the Turkish club.

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