Erhan Önal (3 September 1957 – 16 March 2021) was a Turkish

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 ...

who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

Career

Born in

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

, Önal played for

FC Bayern Munich II FC Bayern Munich II (''FC Bayern Munich Amateure'' until 2005) are the reserve team of German association football club Bayern Munich, currently playing in the Regionalliga Bayern. In 2010–11, they played in the 3. Liga, having qualified for ...

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional association foo ...

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège ( ; ; ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most successful clubs in Belgium, having won t ...

, Fenerbahçe, Türkgücü München and

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

. Önal was the first Turkish immigrant in Germany to play in the Bundesliga. In 2015, he stated that the mentality when he went on loan to Fenerbahçe was "'Erhan came, he should play, the team should come and sleep".İlk gurbetçi futbolcularımız
fourfourtwo.com.tr (Archived) Onal also said that the money he brought was a problem for everybody else and that the facilities were much worse than in Germany. While playing for Standard Liège, Önal received an offer from

Bayer 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 football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

. However, the transfer never happened because Liège kept its transfer fee too high. In response to this, he left for amateur club Türkgücü München, causing some people to assume he had retired. Despite playing for the Turkey national team, he considered himself to be Bavarian and spoke better German than Turkish. His daughter Bige Önal is an actress.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Onal, Erhan 1957 births 2021 deaths Turkish men's footballers Men's association football defenders Turkey men's international footballers FC Bayern Munich II players FC Bayern Munich footballers Standard Liège players Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers Türkgücü München players Galatasaray S.K. footballers Bundesliga players Belgian Pro League players Süper Lig players Turkish expatriate men's footballers Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Footballers from İzmir 20th-century Turkish sportsmen