Sinan Bolat (born 3 September 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 le ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for Belgian club

Westerlo Westerlo () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises seven towns: * Westerlo centrum * * Tongerlo * Heultje * Voortkapel * Oosterwijk * In 2021, Westerlo had a total population of 25,288. The ...

. He has played 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 ...

both at youth level and senior level.

Club career

Early years

Bolat began his professional career at age 17 with

Genk Genk () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality only comprises the town of Genk itself. I ...

in 2005, but only managed a handful of matches in the league, including three starts. He transferred to

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

on 29 December 2008, six months before his contract was due to expire with Genk. He had previously been linked to both Fenerbahçe 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, ...

of the Turkish

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 ...

Standard Liège

Bolat is reported to have moved to Standard Liège for a transfer fee of just €150,000 in the January 2009 transfer window, on a 4.5-year contract.

2008–09 season

Bolat was Liège's preferred starting goalkeeper in the second half of the 2008–09 season due to Rorys Aragón losing favour. Bolat started the last seven matches of the season and kept five clean sheets, conceding only two goals: one in a 3–1 win against

Germinal Beerschot Koninklijke Beerschot Antwerpen Club (), simply known as Beerschot AC, was a Belgian football club based in southern Antwerp. Beerschot played in the Belgian Pro League from 1999–2000 (as Germinal Beerschot) until 2012–13, when they were ...

and another in a 4–1 win against KV Mechelen. Bolat started the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

match against

S.C. Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese ...

on 26 February 2009, and managed to keep a clean sheet during the first half. However, he was substituted off at half-time for the experienced Rorys Aragón, as the match finished 1–1. In the final match of the 2008–09 season, Standard needed to win their match away to

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent (Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghent ** .gent, a ...

in order to force a

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

against

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

for the championship title. (If both points and number of matches won are tied, then a two-legged play-off decides the ultimate winner.) Standard were 1–0 ahead until the 92nd minute, when a penalty was awarded against them. Bolat became the hero of the night as he pulled off a magnificent save from

Bryan Ruiz Bryan Jafet Ruiz González (; born 18 August 1985) is a Costa Rican former footballer. A left-footed attacking midfielder, he also played as a second striker. Ruiz is the only Central American footballer to have played in the UEFA Champions L ...

, ensuring the play-off. Standard went on to win the resulting play-off, winning 2–1 on aggregate, with Bolat keeping another clean sheet in the process, and were crowned champions on 24 May 2009. In his first season, he managed to keep six clean sheets out of nine matches and also saved a penalty. Winning the league automatically qualified Liège for the group stages of

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 the 2009–10 season. English

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 ...

clubs

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 ...

and

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

were said to have made an offer for him in May 2009.

2009–10 season

Prior to the start of the 2009–10 season, Bolat helped his side to a 2–0 win in the

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Belgian Supercup The Belgian Super Cup ( nl, Belgische Supercup, ; french: Supercoupe de Belgique; german: Belgischer Fußball-Super Cup), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian First Division A champion ...

final against

on 27 July 2009. In Liège's final UEFA Champions League group stage match, against AZ on 9 December, Bolat pushed upfield when a free-kick was awarded in the 95th minute, and he scored a headed goal to tie the match at 1–1. The draw clinched third place in the group for Liège and gave them a place in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

at the expense of AZ. This enabled Bolat to earn his place in history as the only goalkeeper ever to score a goal in open-play in the UEFA Champions League.

Porto

Bolat joined Portuguese

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

club

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

on 30 of July 2013 on a free transfer. It was later confirmed he had signed a five-year contract.

Club Brugge

Bolat joined

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

on loan from Porto for the 2015–16 season after Brugge starting goalkeeper

Mathew Ryan Mathew David Ryan (born 8 April 1992) is an Australian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Danish club F.C. Copenhagen and captains the Australia men's national soccer t ...

left the side to join

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

International career

Bolat has played at youth level for Turkey, winning four caps at the under-19 level and three at the under-21 level. He was called up by the senior national team for

by then-head coach

Fatih Terim Fatih Terim (born 4 September 1953) is a Turkish association football manager and former player. He is the former manager of Galatasaray, a position he previously held four times. Terim has managed several clubs in Italy (Milan and Fiorentina) ...

for

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (O ...

matches in September 2009, but was an unused substitute. Bolat gained his first cap on 10 August 2011 in a friendly match against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

Türk Telekom Arena Nef Stadium (officially known as the Ali Sami Yen Spor Kompleksi – Nef Stadyumu) is a football stadium serving as the home ground of the Süper Lig club Galatasaray It is located in the Seyrantepe quarter of the Sarıyer district, on the Euro ...

, a 3–0 victory.

Career statistics

Honours

Standard Liège *

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

: 2008–09 *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

: 2011 Belgian Cup Final, 2010–11 *

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( nl, Belgische Supercup, ; french: Supercoupe de Belgique; german: Belgischer Fußball-Super Cup), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian First Division A champion ...

Galatasaray *

: 2014–15 *

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Kupası'') is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası ...

: 2014–15 Club Brugge *Belgian First Division A: 2015–16 Gent *

: 2022 Belgian Cup Final, 2021–22

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bolat, Sinan 1988 births Living people People from Kayseri Turkish footballers Turkey international footballers Turkey under-21 international footballers Turkey youth international footballers Turkish expatriate footballers Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Belgium Association football goalkeepers Belgian people of Turkish descent Belgian footballers K.R.C. Genk players K.V.C. Westerlo players Standard Liège players Club Brugge KV players Royal Antwerp F.C. players K.A.A. Gent players Belgian Pro League players Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Portugal Primeira Liga players FC Porto players Liga Portugal 2 players FC Porto B players Süper Lig players Kayserispor footballers Belgium youth international footballers