Cengiz Ünder (; born 14 July 1997) is a Turkish 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 ...

who plays as a

right winger A midfielder is an 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 central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

club

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

and the Turkey national team.

Club career

Early career

Ünder began his professional career at Altinordu, and later transferred to

Başakşehir Başakşehir is one of the 39 second-level districts in Greater Istanbul, Turkey. The population of Başakşehir is 311,095 as of 2012. It is in the European part of Istanbul. History Former name of the area was Azatlık. The area specialized ...

. In his breakout season with Başakşehir, Ünder established himself as one of the best players in the league, scoring 7 goals in 32 games in his debut season in the

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 ...

Roma

On 16 July 2017, he became a

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

player for a €13.4 million fee. He scored his first goal for Roma in a 1–0 win over

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

in the

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

on 4 February 2018. In the same month, he marked his Champions League debut with a goal; the opener in a 1–2 loss to

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was f ...

in the first leg of the first round of knockout fixtures, becoming the youngest Turkish player ever to score in the Champions League.

Leicester City (loan)

On 20 September 2020, Ünder signed for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

on a season-long loan, with the option of a permanent transfer. He made his debut in a 3–0 defeat to

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

, coming on as a substitute. On 25 October, he made his first goal contribution for Leicester when he assisted Jamie Vardy's winning goal in a 1–0 away win over

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, which ended Leicester's 47 year wait for a victory away at Arsenal. On 10 December, Ünder scored his first Leicester goal in a 2–0 home win over

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadel ...

in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

Marseille (loan)

On 4 July 2021, he signed on loan for

club

, with an option to be bought of €9 million.

International career

Ünder has represented the U18 and U19 levels of the

Turkey national youth football team The Turkey national youth football team are the national under-20, under-19, under-18, under-17, under-16, under-15 and under-14 football teams of Turkey and are controlled by the Turkish Football Federation. The youth teams of Turkey participate ...

. He most recently was called up to the

Turkey national under-21 football team Turkey's national Under-21 football team ( tr, Ümit Milli Futbol Takımı), also known as Turkey Under-21s or Turkey U-21s, is the Under-21 years of age team of the Turkey national football team. History This team is for Turkish players aged 2 ...

. In November 2016 Ünder received his first call-up to the senior Turkey squad for the match against

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

. He scored his first international goal in his second cap for his country in a friendly victory against

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...

in March 2017.

Controversy

Following the

Afrin offensive Afrin may refer to: Places * Afrin Canton, one of the cantons of the de facto autonomous Democratic Federation of Northern Syria * Afrin District, a district of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of Afrin ...

in Northern Syria, which was carried out by the

Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; tr, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff, the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The current Chi ...

in January 2018, on 11 February, Ünder performed a

military salute A salute is usually a formal hand gesture or other action used to display respect in military situations. Salutes are primarily associated with the military and law enforcement, but many civilian organizations, such as Girl Guides, Boy Sco ...

as a

goal celebration In sports, a goal celebration is the practice of celebrating the scoring of a goal. The celebration is normally performed by the goalscorer, and may involve their teammates, the manager or coaching staff or the supporters of the team. Whilst r ...

after netting in Roma's 5–2 home win over

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in Serie A. In October 2019, following the Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, Ünder posted a picture of the aforementioned celebration on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

; his controversial post drew criticism on social media from Roma fans.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Turkey's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ünder goal.''

Honours

Individual

Awards * Turkish Footballer of the Year: 2018

References

External links

* *
AS Roma Profile
*
Personal Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ünder, Cengiz 1997 births Living people People from Sındırgı Association football forwards Turkish footballers Turkey international footballers Turkey youth international footballers Altınordu F.K. players İstanbul Başakşehir F.K. players A.S. Roma players Leicester City F.C. players Olympique de Marseille players TFF First League players Ligue 1 players Serie A players Premier League players Süper Lig players Turkish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in France Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Turkish expatriate sportspeople in England UEFA Euro 2020 players