Bülent Akın (born 28 August 1978) is a Belgian-born Turkish former

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 ...

Club career

Akin's potential was noticed after

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other de ...

legend

Gheorghe Hagi Gheorghe "Gică" Hagi (; born 5 February 1965) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, who is currently the owner and manager of Liga I club Farul Constanța. Deployed as an attacking midfielder, Hagi was considered one of ...

remarked on how well the young midfielder had marked him in a match between Galatasaray and Akin's club, Denizilispor. Galatasaray subsequently signed Akin, but he failed to live up to the expectation. Nonetheless, he managed to win the

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

with the club. In July 2002 he joined English side

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

. He made his debut in a

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

defeat to

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

, a game in which he was sent off. He made one appearance for Bolton in the league; a 2-0 defeat to

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

on 1 January 2003. He was released by Bolton in April 2003.

International career

Born in Belgium to Turkish parents, Bülent was a youth international for Turkey.

Honours

Galatasaray *

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

: 2001–02 *

References

External links

Soccerbase profile
1978 births Living people Footballers from Brussels Turkish footballers Turkey youth international footballers Belgian footballers Belgian people of Turkish descent Turkish expatriate footballers Turkish expatriate sportspeople in England Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Denizlispor footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Association football midfielders Galatasaray S.K. footballers Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers Malatyaspor footballers İstanbulspor footballers MVV Maastricht players Premier League players R.S.C. Anderlecht players Süper Lig players Eerste Divisie players Turkey under-21 international footballers Yeni Malatyaspor footballers {{Turkey-footy-midfielder-stub