Kerem Demirbay (born 3 July 1993) is a German 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

midfielder 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

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 ...

club

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 ...

. A former youth international for Turkey, Demirbay switched to represent

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Early life and career

Demirbay was born in Herten, North Rhine-Westphalia. He began playing club football with FC Schalke 04 in 1999. After several years with the club, he continued his training with

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

and

SG Wattenscheid 09 SG Wattenscheid 09 is a Football in Germany, German association football club located in Wattenscheid, Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club claimed an official founding date of 18 September 1909 as Ballspiel-Verein Wattenscheid out of the me ...

Club career

Borussia Dortmund

After spending a year in their youth setup, Demirbay was promoted to Borussia Dortmund II playing in third tier

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 ...

. On 21 July 2012, the first matchday of the 2012–13 season, he came to his debut in professional football in an away game against

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its football section. History Foundation to WW2 The c ...

, replacing

Konstantin Fring Konstantin Fring (born 9 January 1990) is a German footballer who plays as a midfielder for side TSV Schott Mainz. With Rot-Weiss Essen Fring won the Lower Rhine Cup The Lower Rhine Cup (German: ''Niederrheinpokal'') is a German football club C ...

from the bench. He scored in the 1–2 home defeat against

1. FC Saarbrücken 1. FC Saarbrücken (german: 1. Fußball-Club Saarbrücken e. V.) is a football club based in Saarbrücken, Saarland. The club plays in the 3. Liga, which is the third tier of football in Germany. The club began its existence as the football de ...

Hamburger SV

In the 2013–14 winter break, he agreed to join

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

on a free transfer in July 2014. After injury issues and several caps for their second team in fourth tier Regionalliga, he made his

debut in the 1–3 home defeat by

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 ...

on 19 April 2014.

1. FC Kaiserslautern

Although performing well in 2014–15 pre-season games, he moved to

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

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern () or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to football, the club also operates in sev ...

on a season long loan to in August 2014. There he became a first team regular, starting in 18 matches and being put in another four times.

Fortuna Düsseldorf

upDemirbay with Düsseldorf in 2015 Returning to Hamburg, he again played pre-season, before signing on a season long loan to

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

on 25 August 2015.

1899 Hoffenheim

In June 2016, Demirbay signed for

1899 Hoffenheim Turn- und Sportgemeinschaft 1899 Hoffenheim e.V., or simply TSG 1899 Hoffenheim or just Hoffenheim () is a German professional football club based in Hoffenheim, a village of Sinsheim municipality, Baden-Württemberg. Originally founded in 189 ...

and was handed the number 10 shirt. In April 2016, Demirbay scored the all important equalising goal against 1. FC Köln that earned the club from Sinsheim their first ever European qualification.

Bayer Leverkusen

On 9 May 2019,

announced that Demirbay would end his stint at Hoffenheim, and would move to the

BayArena Bay Arena () is a football stadium in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, which has been the home ground of Bundesliga club Bayer 04 Leverkusen since 1958. History The stadium was originally known as ''Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion'' (; en ...

at the start of the summer transfer window in a five-year deal until 30 June 2024. Leverkusen reportedly triggered a release clause in Demirbay's Hoffenheim contract by paying a €32 million or €28 million fee, depending on the source.

International career

Youth

Although not having a Turkish passport, Demirbay played international youth football for the

Turkish Football Association The Turkish Football Federation (; TFF) is the governing body of association football in Turkey. It was formed on 23 April 1923, and joined FIFA the same year and UEFA in 1962. It organizes the Turkey national football team, the Turkish Footba ...

. In March 2015, he was chosen by Germany U21 coach

Horst Hrubesch Horst Hrubesch (; born 17 April 1951) is a German professional football manager and former player who last managed Hamburger SV. As a player, Hrubesch won three West German championships with his club side, Hamburger SV, as well as the European C ...

, but was excluded from games due to injury. He was then selected for

2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music * Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, but did not play in any of the games.

Senior

150px, Demirbay with Germany during the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup Demirbay accepted a callup to the

Turkey national football team The Turkey national football team ( tr, Türkiye Millî Futbol Takımı) represents Turkey in men's international football matches. The team is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation ( tr, Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu), the governing bod ...

on 17 May 2017, for a

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

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 ...

, but rescinded the offer. Later in the same day, Demirbay accepted a callup to the Germany national team for the friendly against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

on 6 June 2017, for the 2018 World Cup qualification match against

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

on 10 June 2017 and for the 2017 Confederations Cup to be held from 17 June to 2 July 2017. Demirbay made his international debut on 6 June against Denmark, where he was subbed on in the 77th minute for

Leon Goretzka Leon Christoph Goretzka (born 6 February 1995) is a German professional Association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for club FC Bayern Munich, Bayern Munich and the Germany national football team, Germany national team. Starting o ...

Controversial on-field comments

Demirbay achieved international notoriety for making a sexist comment against female referee

Bibiana Steinhaus Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb (born 24 March 1979) is a German football referee. She referees for MTV Engelbostel-Schulenburg of the Lower Saxony Football Association, but since October 2020 only as video assistant referee. She was a FIFA referee, an ...

, in violation of league rules. After being sent off by Steinhaus, he told her "women have no place in men's football". Demirbay telephoned Steinhaus after the match to apologise. As a sanction for his behaviour, he was given a five-game ban and was made to referee a junior league girls' football match.

Career statistics

International

:''As of match played 25 June 2017. Germany score listed first, score column indicates score after each Demirbay goal.''

Honours

Germany * FIFA Confederations Cup:

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

References

External links

* * *
Kicker profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Demirbay, Kerem 1993 births Living people People from Herten Sportspeople from Münster (region) Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia German footballers Germany international footballers Turkish footballers Turkey youth international footballers Turkey under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders Borussia Dortmund II players Hamburger SV players Hamburger SV II players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Fortuna Düsseldorf players TSG 1899 Hoffenheim players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players 3. Liga players 2. Bundesliga players Bundesliga players 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup players FIFA Confederations Cup-winning players German people of Turkish descent