Miralem Pjanic flies to Turkey for medical ahead of Besiktas loan

Barcelona midfielder Miralem Pjanic is heading for Turkey to undergo a medical ahead of a season-long loan to Besiktas.

The 31-year-old has found minutes hard to come by under Ronald Koeman, starting just six La Liga games last season and failing to make an appearance so far this year.

Barcelona were keen to offload him but could not afford to terminate his expensive contract, which still has three years left to run, so talks were held with clubs across Europe over a possible loan deal.

A return to Italy looked to be on the cards, but once the Serie A transfer window closed, Pjanic was forced to consider other options and A Spor revealed on Thursday that a move to Besiktas was now in the works.

Pjanic hoped to return to former employers Juventus, whom he left in the summer of 2020 as part of the swap deal that took Arthur to Turin, but talks between the two clubs broke down.

Juventus did not want to pay the majority of Pjanic's wages, whereas Barcelona were keen for any buyer to take most of his salary off their hands for at least the next 12 months.

No agreement could be reached before the deadline on August 31, so Pjanic was forced to look towards a country where the window is still open.

Zenit St Petersburg of Russia, where the window is open until September 7, had been keen on Pjanic, but he has since settled on Besiktas, who have an extra 24 hours to finalise their transfer business.