Mehmet Ekici (; born 25 March 1990) is a Turkish

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 most recently played 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 Fenerbahçe. He previously played for

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

, 1. FC Nürnberg,

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

, and

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Trabzon. Formed in 1967 through a merger of several local clubs, the men's football team has won seven Süper Lig championships. Trabzonspor also have a women's football team, ...

. Born in Germany, Ekici played for the

Germany national football team The Germany national football team (german: link=no, Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) represents Germany in men's international football and played its first match in 1908. The team is governed by the German Football Association (''Deutsch ...

at Under-17 to Under-21 level before switching to represent

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

in senior competition.

Club career

Bayern Munich

Ekici made his debut for

's first team in the 2008 T-Home Super Cup. He was named in Bayern Munich's squad for both the 2008–09 and 2009–10

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 ...

. In January 2010, it was announced that Ekici would train with the first-team for the rest of the 2009–10 season, along with reserve teammates

David Alaba David Olatukunbo Alaba (born 24 June 1992) is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back or left-back for La Liga club Real Madrid and captains the Austria national team. Alaba started out in Bayern's youth system before b ...

and

Diego Contento Diego Armando Valentin Contento (born 1 May 1990) is a German professional footballer who plays as a left-back. He is currently without a club. Personal life Contento's family is from the outskirts of Naples (his father from Casalnuovo di Napoli ...

, and on 1 February, he followed Contento in signing a contract with the senior team. He scored 12 goals in 29 matches 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 ...

during the 2009–2010 season. He was an unused substitute for a few first-team matches before injury ruled him out of the end of the season.

Nürnberg (loan)

In July 2010, he joined 1. FC Nürnberg on a season-long loan.

Werder Bremen

On 18 May 2011, Ekici transferred to

for a reported fee of around €5 million. He scored his first goal for Bremen on 17 September, against his former club 1. FC Nürnberg in match that ended in a 1–1 draw. On 1 September 2013, he scored two goals leading his team to a 4–1 win over

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB Stu ...

Trabzonspor

Ekici joined

on 15 August 2014 for a fee of €1.5 million. He made his league debut on 31 August 2014 against

Kayseri Erciyesspor Kayseri Erciyesspor was a Turkish sports club based in Kayseri. History In 1965, Orhan Şefik Apak, then president of the Turkish Football Federation, asked cities in Turkey to combine their amateur football clubs into one singular club that wo ...

, which ended in a 0–0 draw. He left the club at the end of the 2016–17 season when his contract ran out. In his time at Trabzonspor, he made 83 appearances scoring 16 goals in all competitions.

Fenerbahçe

On 5 June 2017, Fenerbahçe S.K. announced the signing of Ekici.

International career

Although he has represented Germany, the nation of his birth, at youth and U21 levels, he has elected to play for

at the senior level. He was called up to Turkish side by

Guus Hiddink Guus Hiddink (; born 8 November 1946) is a Dutch former football manager and professional player. He enjoyed a long career playing as a midfielder in his native Netherlands. Retired as player in 1982, Hiddink went into management, leading both c ...

for the friendly match against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. On 29 March 2011, Ekici represented Turkey in his first major international match against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

where he played right-wing with Turkish play-maker

Arda Turan Arda Turan (born 30 January 1987) is a Turkish former professional footballer who played most notably as a winger. Turan is mostly known for his ball control, dribbling skills and vision. At age 21, prior to the 2009–10 season, he was named ...

on the left-wing, which resulted in Turkey winning the match 2–0 and getting their

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

qualification back on-track. Ekici went with Turkish manager

to 1. FC Nürnberg to try to persuade his close friend

İlkay Gündoğan İlkay Gündoğan (born 24 October 1990) is a German professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Manchester City and the Germany national team. Gündoğan came through VfL Bochum's youth academy. In 2008, he began playing for t ...

to follow in his paths in playing for Turkey.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Bayern Munich *

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 ...

: 2009–10 *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

: 2009–10

References

External links

* * * * *
Mehmet Ekici
at kicker.de

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ekici, Mehmet 1990 births Living people Turkish footballers Turkey international footballers Citizens of Turkey through descent German footballers Germany under-21 international footballers Germany youth international footballers German people of Turkish descent Association football midfielders FC Bayern Munich footballers FC Bayern Munich II players 1. FC Nürnberg players SV Werder Bremen players Trabzonspor footballers Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Süper Lig players Footballers from Munich