Salih Özcan (born 11 January 1998) is a professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for club

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 ...

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

Club career

Born in Germany, Özcan is of Turkish descent as he was born into a Turkish family. Özcan spent the majority of his youth career in 1. FC Köln's youth system. He first featured in 1. FC Köln's first team in September 2016 in a match against Schalke 04. During the 2017–18 season he consistently started in central midfield. He scored his first league goal on 2 September 2018 in a match against

FC St. Pauli Fußball-Club St. Pauli von 1910 e.V., commonly known as simply FC St. Pauli (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg. The team plays in the Bundesliga from the 2024–25 Bundesli ...

. In 2017, Özcan was awarded the golden Fritz Walter Medal for the best U19 player in Germany. On 23 August 2019, Özcan joined Holstein Kiel on loan until the end of 2019–20 season. On 29 June 2021, in spite of speculations about a possible transfer, the club announced that Özcan had signed a new two-year contract with Köln. On 23 May 2022, it was reported that Özcan would join

for the 2022–23 season and that he would sign a contract with the club until 2026. The German sports magazine '' kicker'' estimated the transfer fee to be €5 million. On 28 August 2024, Özcan moved on loan to VfL Wolfsburg.

International career

Özcan was eligible for both the Turkish and German national teams, and played for Germany's youth teams. He played his last game for Germany U21 on 6 June 2021, starting in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final. On 25 March 2022, Özcan was called up to the Turkey national team by head coach Stefan Kuntz. He debuted in a friendly 3–2 loss to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

on 29 March 2022.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Borussia Dortmund *

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 ...

runner-up: 2023–24 1. FC Köln * 2. Bundesliga: 2018–19 Germany U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Individual * Fritz Walter Medal U19 Gold:

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

* '' kicker'' Bundesliga Team of the Season: 2021–22

References

External links

Profile
at the Borussia Dortmund website * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Özcan, Salih 1998 births Living people Footballers from Cologne Turkish men's footballers Turkey men's international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's youth international footballers German sportspeople of Turkish descent Men's association football midfielders 1. FC Köln II players 1. FC Köln players Holstein Kiel players Borussia Dortmund players VfL Wolfsburg players Bundesliga players Regionalliga players 2. Bundesliga players UEFA Euro 2024 players 21st-century German sportsmen 21st-century Turkish sportsmen