Emre Belözoğlu

Emre Belözoğlu (born 7 September 1980 in Istanbul) is a Turkish footballer who plays as a midfielder for Fenerbahçe. He is well known for his passing and dribbling.

He is one of the most accomplished Turkish players of all time, being instrumental in Galatasaray's unbeaten run to a historic UEFA Cup victory in 2000, and UEFA Super Cup victory the same year. He is also a member of the Turkey national team, which he helped to a third-place finish at the 2002 World Cup. "The Fifa 100". The Guardian. guardian.co.uk, Retrieved on 2008-06-21.

Biography

Background

Emre's father was a professional football player known as the “Pilich Mehmet” ("Chicken Mehmet"), whose career ranged from Yedikulespor, Edirnespor and Ankara Demirspor. His dream was to play for Galatasaray, but injury problems forbade him to achieve such an aspiration. The Belözoglu family's only hope was little Emre, who at the tender age of 7, shined for his village team, Gunesspor, attracting the eye of many an interested onlooker. Emre's inspiration came from his ever-supportive father, who walked hand-in-hand with him and introduced him to football at the Zeytinburnuspor training ground. Fatma Belözoglu, Emre’s mother, had seen the problems that her husband had faced over his football career, and thus did not want little Emre to become a professional football player. But his father, ever inspirational and influential, supported Emre and urged him to try. Dreams and smiles filled the eager face of the tender boy.

Zeytinburnuspor

On 29 March 1990 Emre became a licensed footballer for Zeytinburnuspor, starting out as an amateur. The fans of Zeytinburnuspor quickly took an interest in Emre, stating his wonderful control with his left foot. Legendary trainer Salih Bulgurlu noticed his amazing talent, and started giving him special training. Bulgurlu looked after Emre for 4 years, teaching him all the basic techniques, improving and harnessing his fitness and stamina dramatically. When Emre turned 12, every football fan in Istanbul knew him as one of the most exciting and promising talents Istanbul had ever laid eyes on.

Emre was quickly discovered by the Galatasaray legend Bülent Ünder, a close friend of legendary Galatasaray manager, Fatih Terim. Bülent Ünder told Salih Bulgurlu, "Wait and see. In two years, this teenager will be playing proudly within the battlegrounds of Europe," and pleaded that Emre join Galatasaray.

Galatasaray

Emre officially became a Galatasaray player during the 1995 season, fulfilling his and his father's dream. He was forever the centre of attention while rising through the Galatasaray youth ranks, his magical left foot and irrepressible creativity bought him no fewer than 43 caps for Turkey's Under-18 team. Emre made his first appearance for the club's senior squad as a sixteen-year-old in the 1996-97 season. The following year, he became a regular.

At the end of the 1996-97 season, Galatasaray played against rivals Besiktas JK. With the score 2-2 and the game nearly over, Emre scored a screamer to win Galatasaray not only the match, but also the Turkish Super League. After the match, Galatasaray manager and father-figure Fatih Terim met Emre, and after seeing a £4,000 Rolex watch on his wrist, shouted, “You haven’t even bought a house for your family, yet you’re going around wearing expensive watches, aren’t you at all ashamed of yourself?”. Emre’s eyes filled up with tears, responding shakily, “The watch is Arif Erdem’s, he gave it to me after I scored the goal against Besiktas". Terim was extremely sorry, and replied “Well done to Arif! We should have thought of that.”

During the 1998 season, when Emre turned 18, he got his driving license and bought his first ever car, a Mercedes A-140. The level-headed Terim approached Emre, and advised him not to live such a life at an early stage. Under the guidance of Terim, Emre became a much more responsible man.

Emre's time at Galatasaray was filled with success. Domestically, he won four Turkish Super League titles, along with three Turkish Cup trophies. In Europe, he picked up a UEFA Cup winners' medal in 2000, and at the beginning of the 2000-2001 season, he also picked up a UEFA Super Cup winners' medal after Galatasaray defeated Champions League winners Real Madrid C.F. 2–1. Belözoğlu also played in the quarter-finals of the Champions League with Galatasaray that season.

Emre gained much popularity and fame at Galatasaray, earning the reputation as one of the greatest players they had ever seen.

Inter Milan

Emre began to catch the eyes of the biggest European football clubs. Italian leading sports paper Tuttosport described Emre as the most sought-after player in Europe, with Emre attracting the likes of Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Valencia CF, AC Milan and Inter Milan.

In 2001, he transferred to Internazionale on a free transfer, where he would become a fan favourite, wooing and fascinating the San Siro squad with his passion, charisma, and skill. It was during his time at Inter where he picked up the nickname 'Maradona of the Bosphorus', after being compared to the Argentine legend. His form for Inter was matched by his great displays for Turkey at the 2002 World Cup, where they finished third overall. In the 2002-2003 season, Emre became the 17th winner of the Pirata d'Oro (Golden Pirate), an annual award given for the Internazionale player of the year. Inter made it through to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League that year, and that was as far as Emre would reach with Inter.

Emre gradually became out of favour at Inter due to persistent injuries, and after making just nineteen appearances during the 2004-2005 season, he became available for transfer. City rivals AC Milan, Manchester United, Arsenal FC, and Liverpool FC all declared their interest to sign Emre for their respective clubs, but the favourites to sign Emre were Everton and Newcastle United.

Newcastle United

On 14 July 2005, Emre moved to Newcastle United for a £3.8 million transfer fee. He proved to be a fairly popular player amongst the Newcastle fans, as well as showing his ability to win matches not only from his goals, but also from his assists. After playing in nine consecutive UEFA Champions League campaigns, (five with Galatasaray, four with Inter Milan), Emre faced a new challenge at Tyneside. He wanted to bring the Newcastle faithful European football. However, his nightmare for picking up niggling injuries followed him from Italy, and the Newcastle fans never saw the full influence of his outstanding abilities.

Fenerbahçe

On 31 May 2008 it was reported that Fenerbahçe claimed to have signed Emre from Newcastle United. The following day Newcastle United confirmed that they had given Fenerbahçe permission to talk to Emre about a transfer and that the two clubs had agreed terms for a deal. With no confirmation from either club that the transfer had gone though, on 19 June 2008 The Times reported concerns that the injury-ridden player had failed a medical, following a hamstring injury in the Group A match against Portugal at Euro 2008. They also quoted unnamed sources at Newcastle United as saying that the transfer had been postponed until Emre's compulsory military service obligations had been clarified.

On 23 July 2008, Emre was finally unveiled at Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in a signing ceremony by Fenerbahçe president Aziz Yıldırım. At the ceremony it was revealed that Emre had signed a 4-year contract and that he would wear the number 5 shirt at the Istanbul club.

Personal Life

According to the Turkish Press, the reason why he came back to Turkey is, he fell in love with a Turkish girl Tugba Gurevin and planning to marry her in early 2009. In July 1, 2008 he got engaged with Tugba Gurevin who was born 1987, and in his interview with Fenerbahce magazine, set the wedding date as February 2009.

Controversy

On the 24 October 2000. At 5.30 in the morning, Emre, along with some friends, were driving to a mosque in Istanbul, when he swerved to avoid a car which incorrectly crossed the motorway instead of going over the pedestrian bridge. He hit the car killing a man that worked as a cleaner for the Gunes Hotel.

After a post-match brawl in a 2006 World Cup qualification playoff match with Switzerland, Emre was banned for Turkey's next six matches and fined CHF 15,000 (£6,622) plus costs of CHF 1,000 (£440) for his alleged part in the brawl. The FIFA Appeal Committee later reduced the ban to four matches.

On 12 January 2007, Emre was charged by The Football Association with using racially-aggravated abusive and/or insulting words in an incident during a 3-0 loss to Everton on 30 December. Newcastle were unable to comment until Emre himself replied to the charge. He later stated he was angered by claims that he was racist, citing his friendship with room-mate Obafemi Martins as evidence he was not.

On 16 February 2007, the FA announced another investigation into alleged racist remarks from Emre, this time aimed against Bolton Wanderers striker El Hadji Diouf. The incident allegedly took place during Bolton's 2-1 win at St James' Park on 15 October 2006. Emre's agent denied the accusation. Diouf subsequently decided not to press charges. However on 1 March 2007 Emre faced a third racism allegation, when Watford defender Alhassan Bangura claimed he was subject of racist abuse from Emre.

On 19 March 2007 the allegations of Emre using racially-aggravated abusive and/or insulting words during the Everton match were found not proven by the FA.

His transfer from Inter Milan to Newcastle United in July 2005 is one of those about which the Stevens inquiry report in June 2007 expressed concerns:

Career statistics

|- |1997-98||rowspan="4"|Galatasaray||rowspan="4"|Super League||24||2||2||1||colspan="2"|-||0||0||26||3 |- |1998-99||27||4||2||1||colspan="2"|-||1||0||30||5 |- |1999-00||24||5||2||0||colspan="2"|-||7||4||33||9 |- |2000-01||27||4||1||0||colspan="2"|-||6||3||34||7 |- |2001-02||rowspan="4"|Internazionale Milano||rowspan="4"|Serie A||14||2||0||0||colspan="2"|-||5||3||19||5 |- |2002-03||25||3||2||0||colspan="2"|-||5||2||32||5 |- |2003-04||21||2||0||0||colspan="2"|-||3||1||25||5 |- |2004-05||19||1||0||0||colspan="2"|-||5||2||24||3 |- |2005-06||rowspan="3"|Newcastle United||rowspan="3"|Premier League||20||2||0||0||0||0||0||0||20||2 |- |2006-07||24||2||0||0||0||0||5||0||29||2 |- |2007-08||14||1||1||0||1||0||0||0||16||1 |- |- |2008-09||Fenerbahçe||Super League||0||0||0||0||0||0||2||1||2||1102||15||7||2||colspan="2"|-||16||8||125||2579||8||2||0||colspan="2"|-||18||8||98||1658||5||1||0||1||0||5||0||65||5239||28||10||2||1||0||39||16||289||46 |}

Honours

• Galatasaray
• UEFA Super Cup: 1 (2000)
• UEFA Cup: 1 (2000)
• Turkcell Super League: 4 (1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000)
• Turkish Cup: 3 (1996, 1999, 2000)

• Turkey
• FIFA World Cup 2002: 3rd place
• UEFA Euro 2008: Semi-Finalist

• Internazionale
• Italian Serie A Second Place: 1 (2002-03)
• UEFA Champions League Semi-Finalist: 1 (2002-2003)
• Pirata d'Oro (Internazionale Player of the season): 2003
• Coppa Italia: 1 (2005)

• Newcastle United
• Intertoto Cup: 1 (2006)

International Goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	2 September 2000	İstanbul, Turkey		2-0	2-0	2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying
2.	9 June 2002	Incheon, South Korea		1-0	1-1	2002 FIFA World Cup
3.	20 November 2002	Pescara, Italy		1-1	1-1	Friendly
4.	17 November 2007	Oslo, Norway		1-1	1-2	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying
5.	10 September 2008	İstanbul, Turkey		1-1	1-1	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Notes

External links

• UEFA.com Profile
• 123 Football Stats