Özgür Aktaş (born 27 January 1997) is a Dutch professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a defender for club

MVV Maatschappelijke Voetbal Vereniging Maastricht (), commonly known as MVV Maastricht (, ) or simply as MVV, is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Maastricht. Founded on 2 April 1902, MVV Maastricht currently compete in the Eers ...

Club career

Vitesse

Born in

Cuijk Cuijk (; dialect: ''Kuuk'') is a town in the northeastern part of the province of North Brabant, Netherlands. It is the successor of a Roman settlement on the west bank of the Meuse, 13 km (8 mi) south of Nijmegen. Cuijk, which had a po ...

, Aktaş started his career at local club

JVC Cuijk JVC Cuijk is a Dutch association football club from Cuijk Cuijk (; dialect: ''Kuuk'') is a town in the northeastern part of the province of North Brabant, Netherlands. It is the successor of a Roman settlement on the west bank of the Meuse, 13& ...

and joined the youth academy of Vitesse in 2012. In 2015, he moved to the youth academy of

NEC is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It prov ...

. In March 2017, Aktaş, together with Lars Kramer, was promoted to the first team by head coach

Peter Hyballa Peter Hyballa (born 5 December 1975) is a German professional football manager, who last managed AS Trenčín. He also served as manager at clubs in Germany, Namibia, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland and Denmark. Before his career as a manager, ...

due to injuries on their position. On 5 April 2017, he sat on the bench once during the away match in the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

against

FC Groningen Football Club Groningen () is a Dutch professional association football club based in Groningen, province of Groningen. Founded on 16 June 1971 as the successor of GVAV, the team compete in the Eredivisie, the highest tier of Dutch football. G ...

, but did not make an appearance. In the 2017–18 season, Aktaş again played for the second team, Jong NEC, in the

Beloften Eredivisie The Beloften Eredivisie (; ''"Promised Honor Division"'') was the highest football league in for reserve teams in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB). The league was founded in 1992 as ''Reserve Teams Eredivisi ...

. In 2018, Aktaş returned to Vitesse where he joined their second team, Jong Vitesse, who competed in the

Tweede Divisie Tweede Divisie ( en, Second Division) is the highest amateur (and historically the lowest professional) football league in the Netherlands. It was established in 1956, together with the Eredivisie and the Eerste Divisie. Between 1956 and 1960 and b ...

. He made 28 appearances in which he scored 4 goals. At the end of the 2018–19 season, he was brought into the first-team squad and sat on the bench twice during the play-offs. The 2019–20 season again saw Aktaş play for Jong Vitesse, now playing in the Beloften Competitie. At the beginning of September, a transfer to

FC Den Bosch FC Den Bosch () is a football club from 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. They were founded 18 August 1965, as FC Den Bosch/BVV. They are the successor of BVV (1906) and Wilhelmina (1890). Their stadium is called 'De Vliert', an 8,500 all-seater. R ...

did not materialise and later that month, Aktaş, together with Patrick Vroegh, were promoted to the Vitesse first team by head coach Leonid Slutsky. Under

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

Joseph Oosting Joseph Oosting (born 29 January 1972) is a Dutch Association football, football manager and former player, who is currently the manager of Eredivisie side, RKC Waalwijk. Club career He played professional football from 1988 to 2006 for BV Veendam ...

, Aktaş made his professional debut for Vitesse on 17 December 2019 in the

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

home matchup against

ODIN '59 HSV ODIN '59 is a football club from Heemskerk, Netherlands. The club was founded in 1959 and is currently playing in the Derde Divisie Saturday. ODIN stands for Ons Doel Is Nuttig (Our purpose is useful). In the 2021–22 season, ODIN lost in ...

in which he replaced Danilho Doekhi after 85 minutes. His contract expired in the summer of 2020, making him a free agent.

Fortuna Sittard and Dordrecht

In August 2020, Aktaş was signed by

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; li, Fortuna Zitterd ) is a football club in Sittard, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was established through a merger ...

, who sent him directly on a season-long loan to

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...

club

FC Dordrecht Football Club Dordrecht, or simply FC Dordrecht () is a professional Dutch association football club based in Dordrecht, a city in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. They currently compete in the Eerste Divisie, ...

. After returning from his loan, his contract was not renewed, making him a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

Telstar

In August 2021, Aktaş signed with SC Telstar. He made his official debut on 13 August in a 2–2 draw against

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...

, coming on as a substitute for Jip Molenaar in the 75th minute. On 17 September, he scored his first goal for Telstar, which proved to be the match-winner in the 1–0 away win over his former club Dordrecht.

MVV

On 14 July 2023, Aktaş joined Eerste Divisie club

on a two-year contract. He made his debut for the ''Sterrendragers'' on the first matchday of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, starting in a 3–1 win over

VVV-Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following ...

. On 6 November, he scored his first goal for the club, opening the score by heading in a

Tunahan Taşçı Muhammet Tunahan Taşçı (born 29 April 2002) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for club MVV, on loan from Fortuna Sittard. Born in the Netherlands, Taşçı represents Turkey internationally. Club career Early career Taşç ...

corner-kick in a 1–1 league draw against Emmen.

International career

He is available to represent for either the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, being born in the Netherlands and is of Turkish descent.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aktas, Ozgur 1997 births Living people Dutch men's footballers Dutch sportspeople of Turkish descent Men's association football defenders People from Cuijk JVC Cuijk players SBV Vitesse players Fortuna Sittard players FC Dordrecht players SC Telstar players MVV Maastricht players Tweede Divisie players Eerste Divisie players Footballers from North Brabant