Ömer Toprak (born 21 July 1989) 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, rugby lea ...

. Born in Germany, he played for the Turkey national team.

Club career

Toprak began his career with TSB Ravensburg in 1994. In 2001, he moved to FV Ravensburg.

SC Freiburg

Toprak signed for

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions ...

in 2005. Three years later, He signed his first professional contract in the 2007–08 season. During that period, he played for Freiburg U19 and the reserve team and won 22 games with the latter. In his first professional season, he featured in 26 league games and scored 4 goals as Freiburg won the 2. Bundesliga and promoted after a defeat of

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its Association football, football section. The footba ...

. On 9 June 2009, Toprak suffered from a karting accident, causing him to miss the first half of the 2009–10 season but he recovered, scoring a goal against

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

on the 65th minute. Toprak played 24 league games during the 2010–11 season.

Bayer Leverkusen

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. ...

signed Toprak as a replacement for newly retired Sami Hyypiä for a reported transfer fee of €2 to 3 million. He appeared in the match versus Dynamo Dresden in the

2011–12 DFB-Pokal The 2011–12 DFB-Pokal was the 69th season of the annual German football cup competition. It commenced on 29 July 2011 with the first of six rounds and concluded on 12 May 2012 with the final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. Since both finalis ...

but they were eliminated 4–3. In Bayer's first match against Mainz 05, he scored an own goal, causing his team to lose 2–0. He scored another own goal against

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC () or Hertha Berlin, is a German professional football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football league system, German footbal ...

. Bayer managed to qualify to the Champions League round of 16, where they were eliminated by

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

. In January 2014, Toprak agreed a contract extension until 2018.

Werder Bremen

In August 2019, Toprak joined

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

on a year-long loan from

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

. Werder Bremen announced the deal includes an purchase obligation to permanently sign Toprak that would come into effect with a "high likelihood"; the reported transfer fee agreed for that case was reported as €5 to 6 million. The permanent signing took effect in July 2020.

Antalyaspor

On 30 June 2022, Toprak signed a two-year contract with

Antalyaspor Antalyaspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional multi-sport club based in Antalya, southern Turkey. The club's colours are red and white. The association football, football side play their home matches at the Antalya Stadium. In Turkey, the cl ...

. He retired from playing in November 2024.

International career

upToprak with Turkey in 2013 He was included in the Germany U19 that won the

2008 UEFA European Under-19 Championship The final tournament of the 2008 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the 24th UEFA European Under-19 Championship, UEFA's premier competition for players under the age of 19. The tournament was held in the Czech Republic with matches played fro ...

. He appeared in three matches during the tournament, scoring one goal. On 30 September 2011, Toprak was named to the Turkey national team by coach Guus Hiddink for the upcoming

UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying The qualifying competition for UEFA Euro 2012 was a series of parallel association football competitions held across Europe between 2010 and 2011 to decide the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2012. The draw for the qualifying rounds was held on 7 Febru ...

matches against

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. He made his Turkish debut on 15 November against

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

in the second leg of UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying play-offs, playing the full 90 minutes of a goalless draw at the

Stadion Maksimir Maksimir Stadium (, ) is a multi-use stadium in Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia. Named after the surrounding neighbourhood of Maksimir, it is one of the List of football stadiums in Croatia, largest stadiums in the country with a current seating capacit ...

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

which ensured that Croatia advanced to the finals 3–0 on aggregate.

Personal life

Toprak is the son of Turkish immigrants from

Sivas Sivas is a city in central Turkey. It is the seat of Sivas Province and Sivas District.İl Beledi ...

. He was born and raised in

Ravensburg Ravensburg ( or ; Swabian: ''Raveschburg'') is a city in Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg. Ravensburg was first mentioned in 1088. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City and ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. He has one older sister and two older brothers one of whom, Harun, is also a professional football player for FV Ravensburg. His cousin, Rahman Soyudoğru, has also played professional football, including in Germany and Turkey. On 9 June 2009, Toprak was involved in a karting accident, in which he suffered severe burns and had to be treated in a special clinic. He was able to resume training after only four months.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

SC Freiburg * 2. Bundesliga: 2008–09 Borussia Dortmund *

DFL-Supercup The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup or ''German Super Cup'' is a one-off association football, football match in Germany that features the winners of the Bundesliga championship and the DFB-Pokal. The competition is run by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (E ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Germany U19 *

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-19, is an annual football competition, contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain is the most successful team in this competit ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Toprak, Omer 1989 births Living people Sportspeople from Ravensburg Footballers from Tübingen (region) German sportspeople of Turkish descent Turkish men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Turkey men's international footballers Germany men's youth international footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Süper Lig players FV Ravensburg players SC Freiburg players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Borussia Dortmund players SV Werder Bremen players Antalyaspor footballers Turkish expatriate men's footballers Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany 21st-century German sportsmen 21st-century Turkish sportsmen