Serdar Kurtuluş (born 23 July 1987 in Bursa) is a Turkish footballer playing for the club Beşiktaş J.K. and Turkey. His younger brother Serkan is also a footballer playing for Galatasaray

Career

Early years

He started football in Bursaspor youth team. He made his first team debut on August 28, 2005 against Mardinspor, when he was 18 years old. He scored his only goal against İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor on April 2, 2006. Bursaspor won League A that season and promoted to Turkcell Super League.

He was transferred from Besiktaş by Jean Tigana during his re-generation plan for team in 2006-2007 season at the age of 19. Beşiktaş paid Bursaspor $1,000,000 plus Sinan Kaloğlu and Eser Yağmur as exchange players for this transfer. He was playing as a right full-back in Bursaspor, but Jean Tigana tried to adapt him to play as a defensive midfielder as well. He would not be able to score a goal for his team, however, has been very successful in his first season in Beşiktaş as he built his regular place in team's line-up.

He started his national team career on January 11, 2005 in a U18 friendly against Belgium. He attended 2005 Mediterranean Games, and played in the final game against Spain. He was selected for the U21 national team on November 15, 2006 for the friendly with Denmark. After his success in Beşiktaş, Fatih Terim called him for the national team squad for friendly matches. He played his first -and only- national match against Brazil on June 5, 2007.

Honors

• 2005 Mediterranean Games Runner-up with Turkey U21
• 2005-06 Division 2 Champion with Bursaspor
• 2006 Turkish Super Cup Champion with Beşiktaş J.K.
• 2007 Fortis Turkey Cup Winner with Beşiktaş J.K.

Notes and references