Hakan Şükür

Turkish footballer (born 1971) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hakan Şükür

Hakan Şükür (Albanian: Shykyr; born 1 September 1971) is a Turkish former professional footballer who played as a striker. Nicknamed the "Bull of the Bosphorus" and Kral (king),[2][3][4][5] he spent the majority of his professional career with Galatasaray, being a three-time Gol Kralı (Goal King, title and award given to the annual top goalscorer of the Süper Lig),[6] representing the club in three different spells and winning a total of 14 major titles.[7][8][9]

Quick Facts Member of the Grand National Assembly, Constituency ...
Hakan Şükür
Thumb
Şükür playing for Galatasaray in 2006
Member of the Grand National Assembly
In office
12 June 2011  23 June 2015
Constituencyİstanbul (III)
Personal details
Born (1971-09-01) 1 September 1971 (age 53)
Sapanca, Turkey
Political partyIndependent (2013–present)
Other political
affiliations
Justice and Development Party (2011–2013)
Spouses
Esra Elbirlik
(m. 1995; div. 1995)
Beyda Sertbaş
(m. 1999)
Children3
ResidenceUnited States
AwardsState Medal of Distinguished Service (2002)[1] (later revoked)
Websitewww.hakansukur.com.tr

Association football career
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
Sakaryaspor
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1987–1990 Sakaryaspor 41 (19)
1990–1992 Bursaspor 54 (11)
1992–1995 Galatasaray 90 (54)
1995 Torino 5 (1)
1995–2000 Galatasaray 156 (108)
2000–2002 Inter Milan 24 (5)
2002 Parma 15 (3)
2002–2003 Blackburn Rovers 9 (2)
2003–2008 Galatasaray 146 (55)
Total 540 (258)
International career
1987–1988 Turkey U16 6 (2)
1988–1990 Turkey U18 13 (1)
1990–1993 Turkey U21 16 (5)
1992–2007 Turkey 112 (51)
Medal record
Men's football
Representing  Turkey
Mediterranean Games
1993 Languedoc–Roussillon
FIFA World Cup
2002 Korea/Japan
*Club domestic league appearances and goals
Close

Şükür represented Turkey a total of 112 times, scoring 51 goals, making him the nation's top goalscorer[10][11] and 19th in the world at the time of his retirement. One of the most prolific strikers of the modern era, he netted 383 goals throughout his club career as well as the fastest ever in a World Cup, in 2002.[12] He retired from football in 2008.[13]

In the 2011 general elections, he was elected as an Istanbul MP for the Justice and Development Party. He resigned from the party in December 2013, to serve as an independent.[14] He is wanted for arrest in Turkey since August 2016 for being a member of Gülen movement and has lived in exile in the United States since mid 2016.[15] On 14 July 2017, a decree was issued stating that all medals awarded to Hakan Şükür were to be revoked.[16]

Club career

Summarize
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Early years

Born in Sapanca, Sakarya Province, Şükür began his football career with local club Sakaryaspor, making his professional debut shortly after his 17th birthday. His first goal came in a match against Eskişehirspor on 26 February 1989: with the match tied 2–2, he entered the pitch as a substitute and scored the winning goal;[17] he went on to score a further 18 Süper Lig goals in his three-year spell with the club.

In the summer of 1990, Şükür joined fellow first division side Bursaspor. He scored six goals in 27 games in his second season, helping the team to a sixth-place finish,[18] and making his Turkey national team debut shortly after.

Galatasaray – Torino

Subsequently, Şükür signed for national giants Galatasaray.[17] Nicknamed the Bull of the Bosphorus,[19] he scored 19 goals in thirty matches in his first year with the club, helping it win both the league and cup titles, adding 16 and 19, respectively, in the next two seasons and attracting the attention of Torino. In 1995, he moved to Turin, becoming the second Turkish player to ever play in Serie A, but returned to his country and Galatasaray in the following winter transfer window, after failing to settle and only netting once in the league.

Upon his return to Galatasaray, Şükür regained his scoring form, scoring 16 goals in the league and helping the club to win the cup. The following season, he collected 38 goals in the league, tying him for second-most goals scored in a season with Metin Oktay, one goal behind record holder Tanju Çolak; both players were playing for Galatasaray when they broke the record.[17] Şükür also finished third in the ESM Golden Boot rankings with 57 points, behind Mário Jardel (60) and Ronaldo (68).[20] He won the Gol Kralı award the following two seasons, netting 33 and 18 goals respectively, with the Galatasaray winning the title in all three seasons.[6][21]

In the 1999–2000 season, Şükür's last with Galatasaray in his second stint, the team completed a domestic double for the second year in succession, and added the year's UEFA Cup, becoming the first Turkish side to win a European title; in the 4–1 penalty shootout win against Arsenal, he scored on his attempt, having netted ten times in 17 games during the campaign.[22]

Return to Italy – Blackburn

Şükür then moved to Italy again, this time to Inter Milan, scoring six goals in 35 official matches. His appearances were limited by the presence of Ronaldo and Christian Vieri in the team's attack[23] and January 2002, after 1+12 seasons, he signed with another team in the country, Parma, but was unable to produce again, only finding the net three times. He helped Parma win the Coppa Italia, but only played in the first leg of the final.[24][25]

Having been released, on 9 December 2002, Şükür joined Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League for the remainder of the campaign, signed by former Galatasaray manager Graeme Souness.[23] His spell began with him sustaining a broken leg in training, which ruled him out for two months,[26] after which made his debut for the club on 1 March 2003, replacing the injured Egil Østenstad at half time in a 1–0 home win over Manchester City;[27] he scored twice from nine appearances, both goals coming in a 4–0 defeat of Fulham at Loftus Road on 7 April.[28]

Third spell at Galatasaray

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Şükür in 2008

Şükür returned to Galatasaray on 7 July 2003, after failing to negotiate a new contract with Blackburn.[26] He scored 12 times in 28 league games in his first season and 18 in the following, with the team winning the 2005 Turkish cup during that timeframe. Also, on 3 December 2003, he found the net twice in a 2–0 home defeat of Juventus for the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League;[29] in November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as Turkey's Golden Player by the Turkish Football Federation, as their most outstanding player of the past fifty years.[30]

In the 2005–06 season, Şükür again scored in double digits (ten) as Galatasaray again won the league. After helping the club win a record-tying 17th first division title in 2007–08, netting eleven goals, he decided to retire from the game, aged nearly 37. Subsequently, he often appeared as a television pundit on the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation;[31] during his career, he scored 38 goals in all European competitions.[32]

International career

Summarize
Perspective

Şükür won his first cap for Turkey in a friendly with Luxembourg in March 1992 – his debut being awarded by German manager Sepp Piontek – scoring his first international goal in his next match, against Denmark, and totalling six in his first 11 appearances. He netted seven in qualification for UEFA Euro 1996 and started all of the matches at the finals in England, in which they were eliminated in the group stage without scoring a single goal.

Şükür scored eight times in qualification for the 1998 FIFA World Cup: half of those in a 6–4 home win over Wales on 20 August 1997,[33] but Turkey did not reach the play-offs. At Euro 2000, he netted twice for the quarter-finalists, in a 2–0 group stage win against co-hosts Belgium.[34][35]

During the 2002 World Cup, held in South Korea and Japan, Şükür scored once for Turkey in seven matches, as the national team finished in third place. On 29 June, he scored the fastest ever goal in a FIFA World Cup and in any major international football tournament, netting against South Korea 10.8 seconds into the third-place play-off, which Turkey went on to win 3–2.[19]

Of his 112 senior appearances, Şükür captained Turkey in thirty. After appearing in some Euro 2008 qualifiers, notably scoring four against Moldova in a 5–0 win in Frankfurt, Germany,[36] he was not selected for the finals, his last game being a 0–1 home loss to Greece at the age of 36 (17 October 2007).[37]

Personal life

Şükür is of Albanian origin. Both of his parents are immigrants from Yugoslavia, his father being born in Pristina, and his mother in Skopje.[7][8][9][38] His surname is spelled "Shykyr" in Albanian.[39] His first wife, Esra Elbirlik, married him in a ceremony broadcast live on television,[40] initiated by Prime Minister Tansu Çiller and performed by Mayor of Istanbul Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The couple divorced after four months, and Elbirlik and her family died in the 1999 İzmit earthquake. Şükür fathered three children with his second spouse, Beyda.[41] In 2010, the football stadium of Sancaktepe was named after him.[42] In April 2014, his name was removed again.[42]

Politics

On 18 June 2011, Şükür was elected as a Member of Parliament to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in the 2011 general elections, from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), representing the 2nd electoral district of Istanbul Province.[43]

On 16 December 2013, Şükür, known for his links to the Islamic Gülen movement of the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen,[14] resigned from his position in protest after the interdiction of the group's "dershane" system, and decided to continue working as an independent MP.[14][44] He subsequently went on to work as a football pundit for Turkish Radio and Television Corporation.[45]

Prosecution and exile

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Perspective

In February 2016, Şükür was charged with insulting president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Twitter.[46] In August, a warrant was issued for his arrest as he was charged with being a member of the Gülen movement, designated as a terrorist organization in Turkey.[47]

In an interview published in May 2018 by The New York Times, Hakan Şükür stated that he left Turkey in September 2015 and moved to California to be with a friend. He mentioned that after his term as a member of parliament ended in 2015, he faced obstacles in every job he tried to pursue in Turkey, which led him to decide to live in the United States.[48] He then called his wife and asked her to join him with their three children. After obtaining an investor EB-5 visa in the United States, he became a part-owner of a cafe in Palo Alto in 2016.[49] He would later leave this job because "strange people kept coming into the bar".[50] He noted that his long-term plan in the United States was not to run a cafe but to coach at a sports academy, similar to what he had planned to do in Turkey.[51]

In November 2019, he revealed in a video on his YouTube channel that he was working as an Uber driver.[52] Germany's Welt am Sonntag, in an interview with Şükür, reported that he had closed his cafe to work as an Uber driver and was also selling books.[53] Additionally, he mentioned that the Turkish government had seized his properties, businesses, and bank accounts in Turkey.[54][50]

On 3 April 2023, Hakan Şükür announced on his Twitter account that after 7+12 years in the United States, he and his family had received their green cards, which would allow them to reside and work in the US.

As of August 2023, Hakan Şükür has opened a football school in Palo Alto, California, for boys aged 10-13 and 13-17.

The Turkish government seems to be still very sensitive to the subject. In December 2022 during the TRT broadcast of a World Cup match between Canada and Morocco, commentator Alper Bakircigil commented on Hakim Ziyech's goal in the fourth minute about a record held by Şükür, who scored the fastest goal in World Cup history at 10.8 seconds, in their third place match against South Korea at the 2002 World Cup. He was removed from the broadcast at half-time and fired from his job later that day. News accounts speculated that his firing was due to his employer (state-run TRT) reacting to the mention of the name.[55][56]

Career statistics

Club

More information Club, Season ...
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[57][citation needed]
Club Season League Cup[58] Europe Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Sakaryaspor 1987–88 1.Lig 302151
1988–89 1.Lig 115115
1989–90 1.Lig 275275
Total 4110214311
Bursaspor 1990–91 1.Lig 274274
1991–92 1.Lig 277733410
Total 5411736114
Galatasaray 1992–93 1.Lig 301985624726
1993–94 1.Lig 271674904320
1994–95 1.Lig 331971854825
Total 9054221023713571
Torino 1995–96 Serie A 5151
Galatasaray 1995–96 1.Lig 2516723218
1996–97 1.Lig 323834443946
1997–98 1.Lig 343292705034
1998–99 1.Lig 331992764927
1999–2000 1.Lig 32145117105425
Total 15611933153520224152
Inter Milan 2000–01 Serie A 2451091346
Parma 2001–02 Serie A 1530010163
Blackburn Rovers 2002–03 Premier League 920092
Galatasaray 2003–04 Süper Lig 281210963818
2004–05 Süper Lig 3318343522
2005–06 Süper Lig 311042213713
2006–07 Süper Lig 2642061345
2007–08 Süper Lig 281141924114
Total 14655147261018672
Career total 54026079349438709332
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    International

    More information National team, Year ...
    Appearances and goals by national team and year[59]
    National teamYearAppsGoals
    Turkey 199285
    199331
    199453
    199574
    1996123
    199756
    199841
    199973
    200093
    2001106
    2002102
    200394
    200485
    200550
    200654
    200751
    Total11251
    Close
    Scores and results list Turkey's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Şükür goal.[37][59]
    More information No., Date ...
    List of international goals scored by Hakan Şükür
    No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
    18 April 1992Ankara, Turkey Denmark2–1Friendly
    226 August 1992Trabzon, Turkey Bulgaria3–2Friendly
    3
    428 October 1992Ankara, Turkey San Marino1–04–11994 World Cup qualification
    5 3–1
    627 October 1993Istanbul, Turkey Poland 1–12–11994 World Cup qualification
    77 September 1994Budapest, Hungary Hungary1–22–2Euro 1996 qualifying
    812 October 1994Istanbul, Turkey Iceland3–05–0Euro 1996 qualifying
    9 4–0
    1026 April 1995Bern, Switzerland Switzerland 1–02–1Euro 1996 qualifying
    116 September 1995Istanbul, Turkey Hungary1–02–0Euro 1996 qualifying
    12 2–0
    1315 November 1995Stockholm, Sweden Sweden 2–12–2Euro 1996 qualifying
    141 May 1996Samsun, Turkey Ukraine3–2Friendly
    1510 November 1996Istanbul, Turkey San Marino4–07–01998 World Cup qualification
    16 6–0
    172 April 1997Bursa, Turkey Netherlands 1–01–01998 World Cup qualification
    1820 August 1997Istanbul, Turkey Wales1–06–41998 World Cup qualification
    193–3
    205–4
    216–4
    2210 September 1997Serravalle, San Marino San Marino3–05–01998 World Cup qualification
    2310 October 1998Bursa, Turkey Germany1–01–0Euro 2000 qualifying
    2427 March 1999Istanbul, Turkey Moldova1–02–0Euro 2000 qualifying
    255 June 1999Helsinki, Finland Finland2–24–2Euro 2000 qualifying
    26 4–2
    2719 June 2000Brussels, Belgium Belgium 1–02–0UEFA Euro 2000
    28 2–0
    2911 October 2000Baku, Azerbaijan Azerbaijan 1–01–02002 World Cup qualification
    3024 March 2001Istanbul, Turkey Slovakia1–01–12002 World Cup qualification
    312 June 2001Istanbul, Turkey Azerbaijan3–03–02002 World Cup qualification
    3215 August 2001Oslo, Norway Norway1–1–1Friendly
    331 September 2001Bratislava, Slovakia Slovakia1–01–02002 World Cup qualification
    345 September 2001Istanbul, Turkey Sweden1–01–22002 World Cup qualification
    3514 November 2001Istanbul, Turkey Austria2–05–02002 World Cup qualification
    3617 April 2002Kerkrade, Netherlands Chile–02–0Friendly
    3729 June 2002Daegu, South Korea South Korea1–03–22002 FIFA World Cup
    3811 June 2003Istanbul, Turkey North Macedonia3–23–2Euro 2004 qualifying
    396 September 2003Vaduz, Liechtenstein Liechtenstein3–03–0Euro 2004 qualifying
    409 September 2003Dublin, Republic of Ireland Ireland2–2Friendly
    4119 November 2003Istanbul, Turkey Latvia2–02–2Euro 2004 qualifying
    4221 May 2004Sydney, Australia Australia3–1Friendly
    43
    442 June 2004Seoul, South Korea South Korea1–01–0Friendly
    455 June 2004Daegu, South Korea South Korea1–1–2Friendly
    4618 August 2004Denizli, Turkey Belarus1–1–2Friendly
    4711 October 2006Frankfurt, Germany Moldova1–05–0Euro 2008 qualifying
    482–0
    493–0
    505–0
    512 June 2007Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina1–02–3Euro 2008 qualifying
    Close

    Honours

    Sakaryaspor

    Bursaspor

    Galatasaray[61]

    Parma

    Turkey

    Individual

    Further reading

    • "Turkish ex-football star Şükür driving Uber in U.S". Ahvalnews.com. 14 January 2020.

    See also

    References

    Bibliography

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