Mustafa Kemal "Muzzy" Izzet (; tr, İzzet; born 31 October 1974) is a former 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, rugb ...

who 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

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

. Born in England, he represented the Turkey national team internationally.

Early life

His father is a Turkish Cypriot who came to England as a small boy, and his mother is English. His younger brother, Kemal, also became a professional footballer.

Club career

Leicester City

Izzet signed as a schoolboy for

, but never made a first team appearance during three years at the London club. He moved to

in March 1996 on loan for the rest of the season. He became a regular in the side, scoring one goal. When Leicester beat

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

in the play-offs, Izzet was able to make his move permanent for a fee of £800,000. He kept his place in the side for their

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 Fo ...

season, which was successful for City. They came 9th in the Premier League, and won the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

. Izzet formed a partnership in midfield with

Neil Lennon Neil Francis Lennon (born 25 June 1971) is a Northern Irish football coach and former player. During his playing career he represented English clubs Manchester City, Crewe Alexandra and Leicester City. Lennon moved to Celtic in 2000, where he ...

, which proved vital for Leicester. In the 1998–99 season, Leicester came 10th in league, and reaching the League Cup final again, but lost out to

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

. The following season, Leicester came 8th, and again got to the League Cup Final, this time coming up against

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

, of

Division One The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First Div ...

. This year they won 2–1, with Matt Elliott getting both goals. Izzet had been a regular in the side through all of this time. After

Martin O'Neill Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Starting his career in Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his play ...

left, Izzet remained a Leicester player. His time at Leicester drew interest from

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

and

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the ...

, but he did not leave the club. The following season started with a 5–0 home defeat to newly promoted

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pik ...

. Despite pledging to stay at Leicester during pre-season, Izzet handed in a transfer request in autumn of 2001, prior to the club's relegation, but he rejected a move to Middlesbrough as he did not want to be seen to be "jumping ship". He did issue a plea to O'Neill, who was now manager of

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when t ...

side

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

, to sign him in May 2002, remarking that "only an idiot wouldn't consider joining Celtic." Following their relegation at the end of the 2001–02 season, Izzet was again strongly touted for a move to Boro. However, Leicester insisted they would not accept a reduced offer from Middlesbrough for Izzet, who was priced at £6 million, and no deal came to fruition. He withdrew his transfer request in March 2003, after the club achieved automatic promotion by finishing in second place. In January 2004, Leicester rejected £500,000 bids from

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park, ...

and

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

for Izzet. At the end of the 2003–04 season, Leicester were again relegated. Izzet was Leicester's standout player during the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

, assisting on 14 of the club's 48 goals, or 29% of the goals the Foxes scored. Unable to afford Izzet's £30,000 per week wages, the club admitted he was leaving.

Birmingham City

Izzet joined

in June 2004 on a free transfer, signing a three-year deal. Injury plagued his first season, with him making only a handful of appearances, though he did score his first league goal for Birmingham, an equaliser against Bolton Wanderers. His second season was worse, with a knee injury keeping him out for a long period of time. Izzet announced his retirement from football on 27 June 2006.

Thurmaston Town

On 28 November 2009, Izzet made a shock last minute return to Saturday football with

Leicestershire Senior League The Leicestershire Senior League (currently sponsored by Everards Brewery) is a football competition based in Leicestershire, England. History The league was formed in 1896, had a two-year hiatus between 1901 and 1903, and has run continuously ...

side Thurmaston Town. However, he admitted days later that his knee was still very sore and was quoted saying "whether I can turn out for Thurmaston every week is another thing." He never played for them again.

International career

Izzet qualified for the Turkey national side through his Turkish-Cypriot father. He was included in the Turkey squad for

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

, making his debut and sole appearance in the tournament in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

as Turkey drew 0–0 with

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. He was also part of the squad for the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

, featuring again just once, as a substitute in the 1–0

semi-final A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final mat ...

defeat to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. In total, Izzet made nine appearances for the national side.

Later career

Izzet now runs a football academy with fellow former professional footballer and former Leicester teammate Steve Walsh. In September 2015 Izzet's autobiography was published, titled ''Muzzy: My Story''. The autobiography was co-written with ''

Leicester Mercury The ''Leicester Mercury'' is a British regional newspaper for the city of Leicester and the neighbouring counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The paper began in the 19th century as the ''Leicester Daily Mercury'' and later changed to its ...

'' writer Lee Marlow. Izzet is an ambassador for Dorothy Goodman School, a Special Educational Needs school in

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughbo ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire ...

Career statistics

International

Honours

Leicester City *

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by t ...

: 1996–97, 1999–2000; runner-up: 1998–99 *

Football League First Division play-offs The English Football League Championship play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL Championship table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

Turkey *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

third place:

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Individual *

Premier League Player of the Month The Premier League Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the best adjudged Premier League player each month of the season. The winner is chosen by a combination of an online public vote, which contributes to 10 ...

: September 1999 *Most assists in the

: 2003–04 *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premi ...

: 2002–03 First Division

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Izzet, Muzzy 1974 births Living people Footballers from Mile End English footballers Turkish footballers Turkey international footballers Association football midfielders Senrab F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players Sportspeople of Turkish Cypriot descent Turkish people of Cypriot descent Turkish people of English descent English people of Turkish Cypriot descent English people of Turkish descent