Yaren İzzet Sözer (born 19 April 1997) is an Australian 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

Heidelberg United Heidelberg United Alexander Football Club (founded as Alexander the Great-Melbourne Soccer Club) established in 1958 is a football (soccer) club based in the northern Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg West, Victoria, Australia. The team currently ...

Playing career

Club

Central Coast Mariners

Sözer signed for

A-League Men A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

side

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Ma ...

in October 2021 as a backup goalkeeper to

Mark Birighitti Mark Romano Birighitti (born 17 April 1991) is an Australian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Scottish Premiership side Dundee United. Born in Perth, Birighitti played youth football at the Australian Institute of Sport be ...

. He made his debut for the Mariners in a win over

Wollongong Wolves Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wat ...

on 1 December 2021 in the

2021 FFA Cup The 2021 FFA Cup was the eighth season of the FFA Cup, the main national Association football, soccer single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Australia. Thirty-two teams contested the competition proper from the round of 32, i ...

, coming on after 20 minutes when Birighitti was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

. With Birighitti suspended, Sözer made his A-League Men debut in the following game against Macarthur, however, he was forced from the field in the first half due to injury. Sözer made a third competitive appearance for the Mariners against

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

in the opening round of the

2022 Australia Cup The 2022 Australia Cup was the ninth season of the Australia Cup, the main national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. This edition was the first under the new name of the "Australia Cup" following the renaming of Football Federatio ...

in July 2022. The game went to a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

, which the Mariners lost despite Sözer saving

Adam Le Fondre Glenville Adam James Le Fondre (born 2 December 1986), known as Adam Le Fondre, is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for Sydney FC in the A-League. He previously played for his hometown club Stockport County as well a ...

's attempt. Sözer was a member of the Mariners side that won the

2022–23 A-League Men The 2022–23 A-League Men, known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is the 46th season of national level men's soccer in Australia, and the 18th since the establishment of the competition as the A-League in 2004. The regular sea ...

Championship. He departed the club at the conclusion of the season.

International

Sozer played for the Australia under-20 side in a win over

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

at the

2016 AFF U-19 Youth Championship The 2016 AFF U-19 Youth Championship was the 14th edition of the AFF U-19 Youth Championship, organised by the ASEAN Football Federation, and known for sponsorship reasons as the AFF Vietcombank U19 Championship. It was hosted by Vietnam for the s ...

on 14 September 2016.

Personal life

Born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Sözer is of Turkish descent and holds a Turkish passport.

Honours

Melbourne City * National Youth League: 2016–17 Central Coast Mariners *

Championship:

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 ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sozer, Yaren 1997 births Living people Soccer players from Melbourne Australian men's soccer players Australian people of Turkish descent Men's association football goalkeepers Melbourne City FC players Central Coast Mariners FC players Perak F.C. players National Premier Leagues players A-League Men players Australian expatriate men's soccer players Australian expatriate sportspeople in Malaysia Expatriate men's footballers in Malaysia Esenler Erokspor footballers