İsmail Köybaşı (born 10 July 1989) 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 ...

who plays as a left back for 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 ...

club

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, ...

Early life and club career

Born to a family from İskenderun, Köybaşı had begun to play football for İskenderunspor, a local club. Köybaşı started out as an

attacking 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 moved to left back after recommendations from his colleagues. He briefly played for another local club, İskenderun Kartalspor, before joining

Gaziantepspor Gaziantepspor was a Turkish football club located in the city of Gaziantep. Formed in 1969 and dissolved in 2020, Gaziantepspor were nicknamed the ''Şahinler'' (The Falcons). The club colours were black and red, and they played their home matche ...

in 2006.

Gaziantepspor

Köybaşı began his professional career in the youth divisions of

. On 6 May 2008, he signed his first professional contract. He featured in 24 matches with 21 starts during the 2008–09 season. At the end of the season, he was linked with the big four clubs of Turkey, choosing Beşiktaş in the end.

Beşiktaş

Köybaşı joined Beşiktaş in June 2009 for a fee of €6.5 million, as well as an exchange of two Beşiktaş players. He began playing with the team during pre-season friendlies, and made his competitive debut in a Super Cup match against Fenerbahçe on 2 August 2009. In November 2009, he provided the assist to Rodrigo Tello's goal in a 1–0 victory at Old Trafford against Manchester Utd in the Champions League. It was the first time since February 2005, spanning 23 games, that United had lost a group stage Champions League fixture at home. He scored his first league goal against Ankaragücü in December 2009. In September 2011, he provided two assists against

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği (), commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Bursa. Formed in 1963, the club colours are green and white, with home kits usually featuring both colours in a striped pattern. In t ...

, one from the free kick when

Tomáš Sivok Tomáš Sivok (born 15 September 1983) is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a centre-back or midfielder. He made 64 appearances for the Czech national team scoring 5 goals. Club career In September 2005, Sivok became a capt ...

scored with his head in the 87th minute and the second with a cross to Filip Hološko who also scored with his head in the 90th minute securing the victory of 2–1 in an away game.

Fenerbahçe

On 14 July 2016, he signed a 3-year contract with the club.

Granada

On 29 August 2019,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

Köybaşı signed a one-year deal with newly-promoted

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

side

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. (), known simply as Granada, is a Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that plays in the Segunda División, after being relegated from La Liga in the 2021� ...

International career

Köybaşı has featured for Turkey at U-21's level, where he gained five caps. Köybaşı was called up to the senior national team by

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 a friendly match against

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

on 12 August 2009. He won his first cap, replacing

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 ...

in the 86th minute.

Career statistics

As of 15 May 2016.

Honours

;Beşiktaş *

: 2015–16 * Türkiye Kupası:

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

References

External links

TFF Profile
*
Köybaşı interview on Tam Saha, TFF official magazine
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Koybasi, Ismail 1989 births Living people Turkish Arab people People from İskenderun Turkish footballers Association football fullbacks Gaziantepspor footballers Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers Trabzonspor footballers Süper Lig players Granada CF footballers UEFA Euro 2016 players Turkey youth international footballers Turkey under-21 international footballers Turkey international footballers Turkish expatriate footballers Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain La Liga players