Baykal Kulaksızoğlu

Baykal Kulaksızoğlu (born 12 May 1983) is a Turkish-Swiss footballer who currently plays for FC Schaffhausen.

Career

Early years

Baykal started his children's football by local club FC Bethlehem and after a few years moved on to the youth department of SC Bümpliz 78. In summer 2000 he moved to the youth department of Grasshopper Club and joined their U-21 team. One year later he advanced to their first team, where he stayed for two seasons. At the end of the 2002–03 Nationalliga A season GC won the championship and Baykal had seven appearances that season under head coach Marcel Koller. Baykal then moved to Thun in summer 2003, under head coach Hanspeter Latour he made regular appearances in their first team. They finished the 2003–04 Swiss Super League season in sixth position and one year later, under new head coach Urs Schönenberger, as runners-up.

Basel

Baykal joined FC Basel's first team for their 2005–06 season under head coach Christian Gross, who had started his seventh season with the club in that position. Basel had just won the championship for the second time in a row and Gross had to replace a number of midfielders who had left the club. After playing in six test games Baykal played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park on 16 July 2005 as Basel won 1–0 against Schaffhausen. To the beginning of the season he played in the starting eleven, but soon found himself on the bench and in the second half of the season he was only used five times as joker. Basel started the season well and led the championship right until the last day of the league campaign. On the final day of the league season Basel played at home against Zürich. A last-minute goal from Zürich's Iulian Filipescu meant the final score was 1-2 in favour of the away team and it gave FCZ their first national championship since 1980–81. The title for Basel was lost on goal difference.

At the end of the season the club let Baykal move on for a moderate fee. During his time with the club, Baykal played a total of 39 games for Basel without scoring a goal. 15 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, two in the Swiss Cup, nine in the UEFA Cup and 13 were friendly games.

Later career

In June 2006, he signed with 2nd Bundesliga club 1. FC Köln. He left Cologne in January 2008 and joined Young Boys on a free transfer. He stayed with them until June 2009 and transferred to FC Aarau for one year.

In summer 2010 Baykal signed a two-year contract, dated to the end of June 2012, with Karşıyaka Spor Kulübü in Turkey. However, he left the club in May 2011 and joined PFC Lokomotiv Sofia. He was released in early January 2012. Baykal returned to Switzerland and joined semi-professional club Schaffhausen, who at that time played in the 1. Liga, the fourth tier of Swiss football. Schaffhausen won the division and were promoted to the 1. Liga Promotion and the following season they were division winners here too.

Baykal played one season for FC Tuggen, two seasons for FC Linth 04 and one season for FC Muri, before retiring from active football.

Baykal played in Switzerland's U21-National squad and featured in 2004 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.

References

Sources

* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.

Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage

External links

Official Website

Living people
1983 births
Swiss men's footballers
Turkish men's footballers
Turkish emigrants to Switzerland
Naturalised citizens of Switzerland
Switzerland men's under-21 international footballers
Swiss Super League players
2. Bundesliga players
TFF First League players
First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players
Grasshopper Club Zürich players
FC Thun players
FC Basel players
FC Schaffhausen players
1. FC Köln players
BSC Young Boys players
Karşıyaka S.K. footballers
FC Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia players
FC Tuggen players
Swiss expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's footballers in Germany
Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany
Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Germany
Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria
Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria
Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria
Men's association football midfielders
Footballers from Istanbul

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