Deniz Yılmaz (born 26 February 1988) is a 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 last played as a striker for Turkish club Gençlerbirliği. Born in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, Yılmaz is of ethnic Turkish origin. Having represented Turkey internationally at various youth levels he initially sought to play for the Turkey senior national team. After not being nominated for the 2016 European Championship squad, he chose to play for

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

Club career

Yılmaz began his career with Bayern Munich, and made his debut for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

in August 2005, as a substitute for

Daniel Sikorski Daniel Sikorski (born 2 November 1987) is an Austrian footballer who plays as a striker for Aris Limassol. Besides Austria, he has played in Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Romania, Cyprus, and Spain. Club career Sikorski was born in Warsaw, Pol ...

in a 0–0 draw with

VfR Aalen Verein für Rasenspiele 1921 Aalen e.V., known simply as VfR Aalen, is a German football club based in Aalen, Baden-Württemberg. The football team is part of a larger sports club which also offers its members gymnastics, table tennis, and cheer ...

. From the 2007–08 season, Yılmaz established himself as a regular in Bayern's reserve team, and was named in the first-team squad for the 2008–09 Champions League. He was named on the subs bench for the first time in a

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

game against

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

in October 2008. This proved to be his last involvement with Bayern's team, however, despite finishing as the top scorer for the second string in 2009–10, with thirteen goals. He was joint top scorer the following year, along with Boy Deul and Steffen Wohlfarth, but each player only managed six goals and Bayern II were relegated from the

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for th ...

in last place. In July 2011, Yılmaz joined 1. FSV Mainz 05, and made his

debut six months later, in a 3–2 defeat to

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

. He made one more appearance for Mainz in the 2011–12 season, and joined

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

side

SC Paderborn 07 Sport-Club Paderborn 07 e.V., commonly known as simply SC Paderborn 07 () or SC Paderborn, is a German association football club based in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has enjoyed its greatest successes since the turn of the mille ...

on loan for the 2012–13 season. On 15 January 2018, Yılmaz left

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği (), commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Bursa. Formed in 1963, the club colours are green and white, with home kits usually featuring both colours in a striped pattern. In t ...

and joined Gençlerbirliği. He signed a one-and-a-half-year contract with Gençlerbirliği.

International career

Yılmaz was born in West Germany to parents of Turkish descent. Yılmaz won around 50 caps for

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

at youth level all categories comprised, including 8 for the Turkey U21. In 2016, after years of waiting for a senior Turkish call-up, Yılmaz switched to the

Azerbaijan national football team The Azerbaijan national football team ( az, Azərbaycan milli futbol komandası) is the national football team of Azerbaijan and is controlled by Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan. It represents Azerbaijan in international foot ...

. Yılmaz made his debut for Azerbaijan in a 4-0 2018 World Cup qualification loss to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

on 11 November 2016.

Career statistics

Honours

Turkey * UEFA Under-17 Championship: 2005

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yilmaz, Deniz 1988 births Living people People from Neu-Ulm Sportspeople from Swabia (Bavaria) Association football forwards Azerbaijani footballers Azerbaijan international footballers Turkish footballers Turkey youth international footballers Turkey under-21 international footballers Azerbaijani people of Turkish descent Azerbaijani expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Turkey Azerbaijani expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany FC Bayern Munich II players 1. FSV Mainz 05 players SC Paderborn 07 players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Süper Lig players Elazığspor footballers Trabzonspor footballers Bursaspor footballers Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers Footballers from Bavaria