Birkan Kirdar (born 7 February 2002), is an Australian 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 last played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

for

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory e ...

in the

A-League Men A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

Club career

Melbourne Victory

The youngest player chosen in Melbourne Victory's youth squad for the 2017-18 National Youth League season, Kirdar made his debut for Melbourne Victory Youth at the age of 15, coming on in the 76th minute against Perth Glory Youth. Kirdar made his first-team debut for Melbourne Victory in an

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

match against

Shanghai SIPG F.C. Shanghai Port FC (), previously named Shanghai SIPG, is a professional football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Pudong, Shanghai, and their home sta ...

, coming on as an 87th-minute substitute for

Pierce Waring Pierce Waring (born 18 November 1998) is an Australian professional footballer who plays as a forward for National Premier Leagues Victoria club Green Gully. Personal life Born in Melbourne to an Australian father and a Japanese mother, Waring ...

in an eventual 2–1 win. At 16 years and 70 days, Kirdar became the Victory's youngest ever debutant. On 1 June 2018, Kirdar signed his first professional contract with Victory, through till the end of the 2019/20 season. On 29 September 2020, Kirdar re-signed with Victory for the 2020/21 season. In September 2022, he left Melbourne Victory.

International career

Kirdar represented Australia at the

2017 AFF U-15 Championship The 2017 AFF U-15 Championship was the twelfth edition of the AFF U-16 Championship (first edition of the under-15 era), the annual international youth association football championship organised by the ASEAN Football Federation for men's under-15 ...

, the

2018 AFC U-16 Championship qualification The 2018 AFC U-16 Championship qualification was an international men's under-16 football competition which decides the participating teams of the 2018 AFC U-16 Championship. A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, includi ...

and the

2018 AFC U-16 Championship The 2018 AFC U-16 Championship was the 18th edition of the AFC U-16 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-16 national teams of Asia. It took pla ...

Personal life

Kirdar is of Turkish descent, and his grandfather helped found the Turkish-Australian club ''Anadoluspor'', also known as

Hume City FC Hume City Football Club is a semi-professional Australian football club based in Broadmeadows Broadmeadows is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Hume loc ...

Honours

Club

;Melbourne Victory * FFA Cup:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

References

2002 births Living people Association football midfielders Australian soccer players Australia youth international soccer players Australian people of Turkish descent Melbourne Victory FC players A-League Men players National Premier Leagues players People from the City of Hume Soccer players from Melbourne {{Australia-footy-midfielder-stub