Yıldıray Baştürk (, born 24 December 1978) is a retired 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 ...

who played as an

attacking 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 ...

. Born in Germany, he was capped 49 times for the

Turkey national football team The Turkey national football team ( tr, Türkiye Millî Futbol Takımı) represents Turkey in men's international football matches. The team is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation ( tr, Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu), the governing bod ...

, representing the team at the

2002 FIFA 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 ...

where it finished in

third place In sociology, the third place refers to the social surroundings that are separate from the two usual social environments of home ("first place") and the workplace ("second place"). Examples of third places include churches, cafes, clubs, public ...

. In the same year he also appeared for

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, ...

in the

2002 UEFA Champions League Final The 2002 UEFA Champions League Final was the final match of the 2001–02 UEFA Champions League, Europe's primary club football competition. The show-piece event was contested between Bayer Leverkusen of Germany and Real Madrid of Spain at ...

. Baştürk also played for Wattenscheid 09,

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seasons in the Bundesli ...

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charl ...

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. Vf ...

and English club

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. T ...

Club career

Early years, Bochum and Bayer

The son of a

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting ...

, Baştürk began his football career at Sportfreunde Wanne-Eickel. As a teenager Baştürk played for

SG Wattenscheid 09 SG Wattenscheid 09 is a German association football club located in Wattenscheid, Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club claimed an official founding date of 18 September 1909 as Ballspiel-Verein Wattenscheid out of the merger of two earlie ...

, and his breakthrough in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...

came with city rivals

, for whom he even played in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cla ...

. After the 2001 transfer to

, Baştürk was part of a team that finished second in the league, the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

and the

in the 2001–02 season. Due to his role in Bayer's success and Turkey's third-place finish at the

, Baştürk finished ninth in the voting for the 2002 Ballon d'Or.

Hertha and Stuttgart

In July 2004 he was transferred to

, where he remained until 2007 when his contract expired. Baştürk agreed to join German champions

on a Bosman transfer on 28 May 2007 for the start of the 2007–08 season.

Blackburn Rovers

On 27 January 2010, it was announced that Baştürk had agreed to join

from Stuttgart until the end of the season on a free transfer, after his contract with Stuttgart was terminated. Baştürk was handed his first start for Blackburn in the

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 Foo ...

when he started against

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Ro ...

on 24 April 2010 at Molineux, however he was substituted at half-time. Baştürk was not offered a contract extension by Rovers. The following year he was a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

and he finally announced his retirement in May 2011.

International career

In 2002, Baştürk played in the

, where the Turkish team came third. He amassed 49

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

and scored two goals for Turkey. However, after he was left out of Turkey's 23-man squad for

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

, he said he would never play for the national team as long as Fatih Terim remains as the coach.

Career statistics

International

International goals

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

Honours

Bayer Leverkusen *

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

: Runner-up 2001–02 Turkey *

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

: 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 independence from Indonesia and ...

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships (AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL ...

: Third place

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

References

External links

*
Leverkusen who's who
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Basturk, Yildiray 1978 births Living people German people of Turkish descent German expatriate sportspeople in England Turkish expatriate sportspeople in England Turkish footballers Turkish expatriate footballers Turkey under-21 international footballers Turkey international footballers Citizens of Turkey through descent SG Wattenscheid 09 players VfL Bochum players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Hertha BSC players VfB Stuttgart players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Premier League players German footballers Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Turkey Competitors at the 1997 Mediterranean Games 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players People from Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia Sportspeople from Arnsberg (region) Expatriate footballers in England Association football midfielders Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia Mediterranean Games medalists in football