Ibrahim Halil Çolak (born 29 January 1988) 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 lea ...

who plays as a winger

Club career

Youth career

Çolak was born in

Birecik Birecik is a municipality and district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 912 km2, and its population is 93,866 (2023). It lies on the Euphrates. Built on a limestone cliff 400 ft. high on the left/east bank of the Euphrates, " ...

, Turkey, but was raised in

Deventer Deventer (; Sallaans dialect, Sallands: ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Salland historical region of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel, ...

, a city in the Dutch province of

Overijssel Overijssel (; ; ; ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name comes from the perspective of the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht, Episcopal principality of Utrecht ...

. Çolak started his career at local Deventer club IJsselstreek. He soon joined

Go Ahead Eagles The Go Ahead Eagles are a Dutch professional football club from the city of Deventer in the province of Overijssel. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, having achieved promotion from the second tier Eerste Divisie in th ...

as a youth player. Go Ahead Eagles had a cooperation agreement with

FC Twente Football Club Twente (), sometimes known internationally as FC Twente Enschede, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub E ...

, and he joined their youth academy. In 2007, he won the national youth championship with the FC Twente A-juniors.

FC Twente

In the summer of 2007, Çolak was promoted the Twente's reserve squad, where he captured a place in the starting lineup under coach Cees Lok. Due to some good performances, he was called up by first team coach,

Fred Rutten Fredericus Jacobus Rutten (; born 5 December 1962) is a Dutch football coach and former player. As a player, he spent his entire career with Twente during the years 1979 to 1992. Following his playing career, Rutten also managed Twente, before m ...

for the match against

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion ...

. However, he didn't manage to become a part of the squad and was a reserve. On the last days of the transfer market in January 2008, Çolak signed a loan deal with

Cambuur Leeuwarden SC Cambuur, also known as Cambuur Leeuwarden, or simply Cambuur, () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Leeuwarden formed on 19 June 1964. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following ...

Loan deals (2008–09)

Çolak made his debut on 1 February 2008, two days after he was signed. His debut came in the home-match against

FC Zwolle Prins Hendrik Ende Desespereert Nimmer Combinatie Zwolle, commonly known as PEC Zwolle, is a Dutch professional football club based in Zwolle, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football. They have played in the Ered ...

which ended in a 1–1 draw. He played the whole match. Çolak played 11 matches for Cambuur. He scored one goal. On 27 July 2008,

signed Çolak on a one-year deal, which meant a return to his hometown of Deventer. In the first league match of the season, an away-match against

VVV-Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch association football, football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutc ...

, he was a 57th-minute substitute for Jeffrey Vlug. The game eventually ended in a 5–0 loss for Go Ahead. In the following match, a home game against

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; ) is a professional football club from the municipality of Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was establi ...

, Çolak was in the starting lineup and directly provided an assist. The ending result was 1–1. Some weeks after at a training session, he broke his

fibula The fibula (: fibulae or fibulas) or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. ...

which ruled him out for a couple of weeks. On 23 November he made his comeback with a place in the starting lineup in the match against

FC Den Bosch FC Den Bosch () is a professional football club from 's-Hertogenbosch, They currently compete in the Eerste Divisie. They were founded 18 August 1965, as FC Den Bosch/BVV. They are the successor of BVV (1906) and Wilhelmina (1890). Their stadiu ...

, which ended in a goalless draw (0–0). In total he played 23 matches in which he scored six times.

Go Ahead Eagles

On 24 April 2009, it became clear that Çolak would stay another season on loan with Go Ahead Eagles. A month later, the loan deal was converted into a final transition, which meant that he was now definitively a Go Ahead player. He signed a three-year contract. In the first half of the 2009–10 season, Çolak scored 10 goals in 21 matches, making him an important player for the Eagles. He also scored in the

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

, including against

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

side

Heracles Almelo Heracles Almelo is a Dutch professional football club based in Almelo, founded in 1903. The club has won the Dutch national title twice, in 1927 and 1941. Heracles won the Eerste Divisie title during the 2004–05 season, gaining promotion to t ...

. His good performances were not going unnoticed. It was rumoured that

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

were interested in the services of the young Turkish winger.

Kasımpaşa

On 12 August 2010 he moved to

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and signed a five-year deal with

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

side Kasımpaşa. On 26 March 2015, Çolak was released by Kasımpaşa.

Later career

On 4 July 2015, Çolak was signed by

Akhisarspor Akhisarspor Kulübü (), commonly known as Akhisarspor, is a Turkish professional football club located in the city of Akhisar.

on a two-year contract. He would also play for

İstanbulspor İstanbulspor Kulübü is a Turkish association football, football and sports club founded by Istanbul High School students in 1926. In 2004–05, they were relegated from the Turkish Süper Lig (Super League) to the TFF First League. For many d ...

Balıkesirspor Balıkesirspor is a Turkish sports club, club based in Balıkesir. Established in 1966, the Association football, football team played in the Süper Lig after achieving promotion having finished as runners-up of the TFF First League in 2013–14 T ...

and

Samsunspor Samsunspor Kulübü, officially known as Samsunspor Football Club Joint Stock Company, or as Reeder Samsunspor due to sponsorship agreements, is a Turkey, Turkish Football club (association football), professional football club that competes in t ...

the following years. Being released from the latter in the summer of 2020, he rejoined Balıkesirspor in January 2021 after being a free agent for six months.

References

External links

* * *
Voetbal International: Halil Çolak

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colak, Halil 1988 births Living people Footballers from Deventer Dutch sportspeople of Turkish descent Turkish men's footballers FC Twente players SC Cambuur players Go Ahead Eagles players Kasımpaşa S.K. footballers Akhisarspor footballers Şanlıurfaspor footballers İstanbulspor footballers Balıkesirspor footballers Samsunspor footballers Eerste Divisie players Süper Lig players TFF 1. Lig players TFF Second League players Men's association football wingers 21st-century Turkish sportsmen