Kenan Yıldız (; born 4 May 2005) is a 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 ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for club

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

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

Club career

Youth career

Yıldız was born in

Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...

, Bavaria, to a Turkish father and a German mother. He began playing football at the youth academies of Sallern Regensburg and Jahn Regensburg. He joined the youth academy of

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 football team, ...

in 2012 at the age of 7, and worked his way up their youth categories, often acting as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

and eventually becoming a mainstay of their U19s. In his final year with the Bayern U19s in the 2021–22 season, Yıldız contributed six goals and eight assists in 20 matches. Yıldız's contract with Bayern Munich expired in July 2022, and the club confirmed that they were unable to re-sign him.

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and

competed for his signing as he became a free agent. On 12 July, Juventus confirmed the signing of Yıldız. In September, he was included among the best 60 players born in 2005 by English newspaper ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. After playing with the U19s, on 16 December, Yıldız was first called up to

Juventus Next Gen Juventus Next Gen (), also known as Juve Next Gen or Juve NG, is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, which acts as the reserve team of club Juventus. They compete in , and play their home games at the Stadio La Marm ...

—the reserve team of Juventus—for the match against

Virtus Verona Virtus Verona, founded as Unione Sportiva Virtus Borgo Venezia in 1921, sometimes referred to as Virtus Vecomp Verona for sponsorship reasons, is an Italian association football club located in Borgo Venezia, a district of Verona, Veneto. It c ...

set to be played the following day. In that match, he was sent on as a substitute by coach Massimo Brambilla in the 61st minute to make his professional debut; the team lost 3–0.

2023–present: First team breakthrough

Yıldız made his

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

debut for Juventus in a 3–0 away win over

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

on 20 August 2023, coming on as a second-half substitute. Ten days later, he extended his contract with the club until 2027. Yıldız made his first start for the Juventus first team on 23 December 2023, scoring the opening goal in a 2–1 win over

Frosinone Frosinone (; local dialect: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lazio, administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is about southeast of Rome, close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of th ...

. This made him the club's youngest foreign goalscorer in Serie A at the age of 18 years and 233 days. On 16 August 2024, he extended his contract until 2029 and acquired the number 10 shirt. On the following 17 September, he scored the opener of a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

home match against

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

with a curling shot; it was the first-ever goal scored in the ''league phase'' of the competition, and it rendered him the youngest-ever goalscorer for the team in the Champions League, surpassing club legend

Alessandro Del Piero Alessandro Del Piero (; born 9 November 1974) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a second striker, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. Since 2015, he has worked as a pundit for ...

. On 27 October 2024, Yıldız came on as a substitute in the 60th minute with Juventus trailing 4–2 to

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

in the ''

Derby d'Italia The Derby d'Italia () is the name of the football derby between Internazionale of Milan and Juventus of Turin. The term was coined in 1967 by Italian sports journalist Gianni Brera. The teams are from the two biggest cities in Northern Italy ...

'' and scored a brace to make it 4–4 and to win the MVP Award of the match.

International career

Yıldız was a youth international for Turkey, having represented the Turkey U17s. On 27 September 2022, Yıldız made his Turkey U21 debut, playing 28 minutes against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. In October 2023, Yıldız received his first call-up to the Turkey national team for two

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...

matches 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 ...

and

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. On 12 October, he made his full international debut as an 86th-minute substitute in the 1–0 win over Croatia. Yıldız scored his first international goal on 18 November 2023 in a friendly match with a 3–2 win over

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 ...

, his mother's country and his country of birth, in Berlin. On 7 June 2024, he was selected in the 26-man squad for

UEFA Euro 2024 The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champ ...

Playing style

Yıldız is a modern

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

known for his strong passing and shots from outside the box. He is known for his excellent technique. His most natural role is as playmaker, and he is noted for this strong frame. Aside from midfielder, Yıldız can also play as a winger.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Turkey's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Yıldız goal.''

Honours

Bayern Munich U17 *

Under 17 Bundesliga The Under 17 Bundesliga (German: ''B-Junioren Bundesliga'') is the highest level of play in German football for male juniors between the ages of 15 and 17. It was formed in 2007 and operates in three regional divisions with 14 clubs each. At the ...

: 2017 Juventus *

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

: 2023–24 Individual * Serie A Goal of the Month: January 2025 *

Golden Boy Award The Golden Boy is an award established by Tuttosport that is given by sports journalists to a young male footballer playing in Europe perceived to have been the most impressive during a calendar year (two halves to two separate seasons). All nom ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

* Juventus January Mvp of the month *

Team of the Season: 2024–25 * Serie A Goal of the Season: 2024–25

References

External links

Profile
at the Juventus FC website * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yildiz, Kenan 2005 births Living people Footballers from Regensburg Turkish men's footballers Turkey men's youth international footballers Turkey men's international footballers FC Bayern Munich footballers SSV Jahn Regensburg players Juventus FC players Juventus Next Gen players Serie A players Serie C players UEFA Euro 2024 players Turkish people of German descent German sportspeople of Turkish descent Men's association football midfielders Turkish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Italy 21st-century Turkish sportsmen