Muhammed Kerem Aktürkoğlu (born 21 October 1998) 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 le ...

who plays as a left winger and

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

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 ...

club Galatasaray and the Turkey national team.

Club career

Aktürkoğlu began his career with Başakşehir's youth academy, and was loaned to Bodrumspor. He then spent various seasons in the amateur

TFF Third League TFF 3. Lig (Turkish Football Federation Third League) is the fourth level in the Turkish football league system. It was founded in 2001–02 season as a continuation of then third level division Turkish Third Football League.Turkish Third Footba ...

, before breaking out with

Erzincanspor Erzincanspor was a sports club located in Erzincan, Turkey. The football club played in the Iddaa League B in 2007–2008 season and relegated to TFF Third League, Third League in 2008 and Erzincan Amateur League in 2008–2009 season. The club ...

in the 2019–20 season scoring 20 goals in 34 games.

Galatasaray

Aktürkoğlu transferred to Galatasaray on 2 September 2020. He made his professional debut with Galatasaray in a 1–1

tie with Kayserispor on 23 November 2020. On 16 August 2021, Aktürkoğlu was involved in a physical altercation with teammate Marcão during a game against

Giresunspor Giresunspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Giresun. It was founded in 1925 and re-formed in 1967 after the merger of Yeşiltepespor, Akıngençlikspor, and Beşiktaşspor. The football club is playing in the Turkish S ...

. Aktürkoğlu became the champion in the

in the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season with the Galatasaray team. Defeating Ankaragücü 4–1 away in the match played in the 36th week on 30 May 2023, Galatasaray secured the lead with 2 weeks before the end and won the 38th championship in its history.

2023-24 season

After Wilfried Zaha has joined Galatasaray, Kerem lost his favourite

inverted 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 ...

position to Zaha and manager Buruk started to position him behind

Mauro Icardi Mauro Emanuel Icardi Rivero (; born 19 February 1993) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Süper Lig club Galatasaray S.K. (football), Galatasaray, on loan fro ...

. However Kerem's performance got indirectly affected by playing at that position by taking turns with

Dries Mertens Dries Mertens (; born 6 May 1987), nicknamed "Ciro", is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker or winger for Süper Lig club Galatasaray and the Belgium national team.

. On 8 August, 2023, he scored his first goal of the season in a 0–3 away win against Olimpija in a UEFA Champions League qualifying round game. On 16 August, 2023, in a 4–2 home game win against Samsunspor, Aktürkoğlu made an outstanding performance by scoring two goals and providing one assist. In his first 10 competitive matches he scored 4 goals and provided 5 assists in total. On 20 September 2023, he made his

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

debut against

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. On 3 October 2023, he scored his first goal in UEFA Champions League group stage in a 3–2 away game win against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

. On 29 November 2023, in a 3–3 home game draw against Manchester United, he came in as a substitute and scored the last goal of the game against Manchester United. The goal was nominated and later awarded as the Goal of the Week of matchday 5 of the UEFA Champions League.

International career

Aktürkoğlu made his debut for Turkey national team on 27 May 2021 in a friendly against

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 th ...

. On 7 June 2024, he was named in Turkey's 26-man squad for the UEFA Euro 2024. On 18 June, he scored Turkey's third goal in a 3–1 victory against Georgia in the opening match of the European competition.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Galatasaray *

, 2023–24 *

Turkish Super Cup The Turkish Super Cup ( Turkish: ''TFF Süper Kupa''), as it is currently known, is the annual super cup football match contested between the previous season's Süper Lig champions and the Turkish Cup winners in Turkey. It was originally known a ...

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Akturkoglu, Kerem 1998 births Living people Footballers from İzmit Turkish men's footballers Men's association football wingers Turkey men's international footballers Turkey men's youth international footballers Süper Lig players İstanbul Başakşehir F.K. players Karacabey Belediyespor footballers 24 Erzincanspor footballers Galatasaray S.K. footballers Bodrum F.K. footballers UEFA Euro 2020 players UEFA Euro 2024 players