Following a successful UEFA Euro 2008 campaign, Turan was ranked eighth in a selection of the 100 Best Young Football Players in the World piece published by Spanish magazine Don Balón in July 2008.

He was promoted to the Galatasaray first-team by manager Gheorghe Hagi in 2004–05 season, and he made his official debut against Bursaspor in a Turkish Cup match on 22 January 2005.

[9] As captain at the start of season, Turan guided his team to six consecutive league wins games which put Galatasaray comfortably at the top of the table.

[10] In the late hours of 9 August 2011, it was announced Turan would be joining Atlético Madrid for a €12 million transfer fee plus bonuses,[11] making him the most expensive Turkish footballer of all-time.

[12][13] He was handed the number 11 shirt and made his 2011–12 La Liga debut on 28 August 2011 against Osasuna, entering as a substitute in the second half.

He then won the 2012 UEFA Super Cup with Atlético against Champions League victors Chelsea, assisting Falcao for the third goal of the game in a 4–1 victory.

[19] On 1 October 2014, Turan scored the only goal of the match in the 1–0 win against Juventus in the group stage of the 2014–15 Champions League season.

On 28 January 2015, in the 47th minute of the home leg of the Copa del Rey quarter-final against Barcelona, Turan threw his boot in the direction of the assistant referee, when he was denied a free-kick for an alleged foul by Ivan Rakitić.

On 22 April, Turan was sent off for a foul on Sergio Ramos as Atlético lost 0–1 at Real Madrid to be eliminated from the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

[27][28] On 17 August 2016, Turan scored twice and Lionel Messi once as Barcelona earned a 3–0 second-leg victory over Sevilla to win the 2016 Supercopa de España 5–0 on aggregate.

[29] On 7 December 2016, Turan scored his first hat-trick for Barcelona during a Champions League group stage match against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

He became the sixth player in Barça history to score a hat-trick in the Champions League, after Messi, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Samuel Eto'o and Neymar.

[31] He made his debut for the club in a league match on 21 January 2018, coming off the bench in the 65th minute mark and scoring the third goal in the 3–0 away win over Bursaspor.

[41] His second came in the final group stage match against the Czech Republic, in which a draw would see a penalty shootout being played to determine who would go through to the quarter-finals because both teams had identical records.

[42] He also successfully converted a spot-kick in the penalty shootout against Croatia in the quarter-finals,[43] taking Turkey to the semi-finals, where they were eventually knocked out by losing finalists Germany.

Turan scored two goals during the qualification rounds of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but ultimately Turkey failed to qualify from their group.

After a qualifier in September 2008 between Armenia and Turkey – the two sides having historical political problems – both teams received a FIFA Fair Play Award for 2008.

[44] Turan scored the Turkish national team's 600th international goal in a 2010 World Cup qualification game, against Estonia on 5 September 2009.

In June 2017, Turan attacked verbally and tried to strangulate journalist Bilal Meşe in a plane trip back from a game against Macedonia.

[48] He was granted his 100th and final international appearance for Turkey in the 3–0 defeat to Iceland national football team in 2018 World Cup qualifying group match in October 2017.

[66] Arda Turan received a suspended sentence of 2 years and 8 months after being found guilty of firing a gun to cause panic, illegal possession of weapons and intentional injury.

Turan appeared at the hospital with a gun, allegedly begging for forgiveness from Şahin, panic ensued after the footballer fired the weapon at the ground.