Ozan Tufan (born 23 March 1995) 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

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

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

and the Turkey national team. His primary position is

holding 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 ...

but he can also play as both

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

and also

right 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 ...

Club career

On 19 August 2021, Tufan left Turkey for the first time in his career when he joined newly promoted

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

on a season-long loan deal with the option to buy. On 2 February 2022, the loan was terminated early with Tufan returning to Turkey having only made nine appearances in all competitions. Following his return, Watford's Academy Manager,

Omer Riza Omer Karime Ali Riza (born 8 November 1979) is a former footballer who is a coach at Watford's academy. Riza, who played as a forward, featured for English clubs Arsenal and West Ham United, Holland's Ado Den Haag and Turkish outfits Trabzon ...

, talked about Tufan's struggle to adapt to the pace of the Premier League. On 1 July 2022, Tufan signed for

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

club

for an undisclosed fee. Tufan signed a three-year deal with the club holding the option for a further year. He made his debut for the Tigers on 30 July 2022 in the home match against

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

and scored a penalty to level the score. Tufan scored his first

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

for Hull in their 4–2 home victory over

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

on 12 August 2023.

International career

Tufan played for the Turkey national under-19 team, which won the silver medal at the

2013 Mediterranean Games The 2013 Mediterranean Games ( tr, 2013 Akdeniz Oyunları), officially known as the XVII Mediterranean Games ( tr, XVII Akdeniz Oyunları) and commonly known as Mersin 2013, was an international multi-sport event held from 20 to 30 June 2013 i ...

Mersin Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...

, Turkey. He also represented his country at the

2013 UEFA European Under-19 Championship The 2013 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship, since its reclassification from an under-18 tournament in 2002, and the 62nd since the tournament was created in 1948. It was hosted in Li ...

. On 25 May 2014, Tufan played his first national match for

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 ...

against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

.Player's profile
eu-football.info, Retrieved 11 October 2014 On 3 September 2014, Tufan scored his first goal, a long range shot 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 = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

in a friendly game at 90th minute. Turkey won the game 2–1. In a post-match interview about the game he replied " I had the ball in front of me and right when I was about to kick it, I heard

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 ...

backing me to shoot. I initially had the scare of hitting my shot off-range, on such an important moment; but I kept my composure and hit the ball right after. I want to thank Fatih Terim for giving me this chance, I think I've done the best I could today."

Career statistics

Club

International

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

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tufan, Ozan 1995 births Living people People from Orhaneli Sportspeople from Bursa Province Turkish men's footballers Turkey men's youth international footballers Turkey men's international footballers Men's association football defenders Bursaspor footballers Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers Alanyaspor footballers Watford F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Süper Lig players Premier League players English Football League players UEFA Euro 2016 players UEFA Euro 2020 players Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Turkey Mediterranean Games medalists in football Competitors at the 2013 Mediterranean Games Turkish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Turkish expatriate sportspeople in England