Captaincy under threat and hardly any chance of a regular starting place: is a star’s quiet departure on the cards at VfB Stuttgart?

After a difficult early summer, Atakan Karazor is now also enduring a difficult pre-season at VfB Stuttgart. Is the captain slipping quietly and silently overboard?

So far, it has not been Atakan Karazor's summer. After the 2025/26 season ended on a fairly positive note for the VfB Stuttgart midfielder, despite a stuttering start, with a place in the DFB Cup final and another year in the Champions League secured, Karazor had every reason to hope he would also represent Turkey at the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

In the end, national coach Vincenzo Montella decided against calling up the 29-year-old. With Hakan Calhanoglu (Inter Milan), Ismail Yüksek (Fenerbahce Istanbul) and Salih Özcan (BVB), the competition in the heart of defensive midfield was too strong and too high-profile. So despite making the provisional squad, Karazor missed out on Turkey's final 26-man squad and had to watch a World Cup campaign that ended for the Turks in the group stage.

That at least gave him the chance, Karazor may have thought, to be involved in VfB's pre-season preparations from day one. While some of his team-mates were still in America or then headed off on their well-earned summer holidays, he could do everything possible to impress coach Sebastian Hoeneß and his staff from the first minute and underline his ambition to nail down a regular starting place this season.

Chema Andres has overtaken Atakan Karazor at VfB Stuttgart

Now, a little over a month later, pre-season is in full swing. The World Cup players and holidaymakers are back. Karazor's standing in Stuttgart, however, has not improved since official training began. Quite the opposite. Around a week before the official start of the new season, the 29-year-old is under as much pressure as he has been for a long time and is in danger of losing both his place as a regular starter and his status as one of the team's leaders.

Fighting for a place in the starting XI is nothing especially new for the 29-year-old. Exactly a year ago, Karazor found himself in a similar position, when VfB signed Chema Andres, an extremely promising midfield talent from Real Madrid, and it quickly became clear that coach Hoeneß knew how to get more out of the 21-year-old Spaniard's attributes than out of those of his captain.

That left Karazor on the bench more than once in the first third of the season. It was only when Chema himself showed the odd uncertainty in his game and results also dried up that Hoeneß abandoned his plan and restored Karazor to the starting line-up alongside the undisputed Angelo Stiller. He stayed there until the end of the season. Karazor in particular came through a heavy workload in the second half of the campaign and, apart from a suspension for yellow cards and a red-card ban, started 13 of a possible 16 matches. Only twice did Hoeneß leave him out entirely, somewhat surprisingly including in the cup final.

Must Atakan Karazor also fear for his captaincy at VfB Stuttgart?

This summer, though, the situation is a little different. Stiller remains indispensable for VfB in central midfield, so one of the two positions in front of the defence is already taken. Competing for the place alongside the Germany international are last year's two rivals, Karazor and Chema, as well as Grischa Prömel, who arrived on a free transfer from TSG Hoffenheim.

He in particular made a strong impression at the Swabians' training camp on Bavaria's Chiemsee, especially as Hoeneß already regards him as one of his absolute preferred players. From a purely sporting perspective, the situation for Karazor therefore looks significantly trickier than it did last year, when he "only" had to contend with the still relatively inexperienced Chema.

Then there is, of course, the captain's armband. Karazor, who has worn the VfB shirt since the 2019/20 season and is therefore one of the faces of Stuttgart's rise over recent years, has not just been important because of his performances. Above all, Hoeneß has valued his qualities on the pitch as a leader and commanding presence within the squad.

That role, too, is at least up for debate this season. On the sidelines of the friendly against Everton, Hoeneß explained that he had not yet made a final decision on the captain. Striker and fans' favourite Deniz Undav in particular is said to be at the top of the VfB coach's thinking, with a decision only due immediately before the first competitive match in the DFB Cup against Hansa Rostock: "I'm not thinking about that in friendlies yet. But at some point we will of course make the decision."

Hoeneß said Karazor has done "very well" in the past two years as captain, but they still wanted to give it further thought. Undav himself, meanwhile, spoke diplomatically about the situation involving his close friend: "Even if I were to become captain, Ata will remain my captain."

Does Atakan Karazor still have a future at VfB Stuttgart?

Should Karazor lose the captain's armband at the Swabians, it would be another sign that those in charge in Stuttgart no longer see him in the very top bracket from a sporting perspective. Most recently, it was said that despite the adverse circumstances, the 29-year-old wanted to battle through at VfB and was not looking to leave. The Bild newspaper now reports, however, that a sale can no longer be ruled out if a suitable offer arrives.

In recent days, meanwhile, the Turkish media have been speculating about interest from Trabzonspor. It would be the Essen-born player's first spell outside Germany. Even so, VfB would lose a leader, with or without the armband, who is hugely popular within the squad and especially with Undav. There is no doubt that, with the demands of competing on three fronts, the loss would also be felt on the pitch. After all, the signs had looked bad before, and Karazor still held on to his regular starting place in the end.