Alexander Merkel ( kk, Александр Меркель; born 22 February 1992) is a Kazakh 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 le ...

who plays as a

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 ...

for

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

club

Gaziantep Gaziantep (), previously and still informally called Aintab or Antep (), is a major city and capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Mediterranean Region, approximat ...

and the Kazakhstan national team. Born in Kazakhstan to parents of German descent, Merkel initially represented

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

internationally at youth level. He switched allegiance to Kazakhstan in 2015, making his debut in a UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying game.

Club career

Early career

Born in Kazakhstan to parents of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

ancestry, Merkel moved to Germany in 1998, aged 6. There he started playing football with amateur team JSG Westerwald, before joining

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. VfB Stu ...

at the age of 11.

Milan

In 2008, at age 16, Merkel transferred to Italian side

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. During his time in the club's youth system, he was a member of the

under-20 Junior is a category of athletics in which athletes compete under the age of 20 years. Countries all around the world compete in athletics. World Junior Athletics Competitions are held every two years which contain the best junior competitors in ...

side who won the

Coppa Italia Primavera The Coppa Italia Primavera (Italian for Spring Italian Cup) is an Italian football competition played by youth teams from Campionato Primavera. All players are under 20 of age. The first edition was held in the 1972–73 season. Due to sponsorshi ...

in 2010, 25 years after the team's last success in the competition. Merkel received his first call-ups for the senior team during the 2009–10 campaign, but he was never fielded nor named on the bench. At the beginning of the following season, he took part in some pre-season games, putting up good performances. Merkel eventually made his first-team official debut on 8 December 2010, coming off the bench in a

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 competit ...

group stage game against Ajax, He also came off the bench against

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...

on the 75th Minute for Kevin-Prince Boateng on 6 January 2011, he also made his league debut, figuring in the starting line-up for a match against

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

. Merkel went on to score his first professional goal on 20 January, as Milan pulled off a 3–0 win over

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

in the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

round of 16. In total, he made ten appearances, six of which were in the league, throughout the season.

Genoa

At the beginning of the 2011–12 season, Merkel joined

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

in co-ownership with Milan, for €5 million, which, in turn, signed

Stephan El Shaarawy Stephan El Shaarawy (born 27 October 1992) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Roma and the Italy national team. He is nicknamed ''Il Faraone'' (The Pharaoh), as his father is Egyptian. El Shaarawy began his ...

in a same type of deal, for €10 million. Merkel made his official debut for the club in 4–3 win over Nocerina in third preliminary round of the

, on 20 August 2011. Merkel made his first

assist Assist or ASSIST may refer to: Sports Several sports have a statistic known as an "assist", generally relating to action by a player leading to a score by another player on their team: *Assist (basketball), a pass by a player that facilitates a ba ...

of the season with a left-footed

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

to Marco Rossi a 2–2 draw against

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

. On 17 January 2012, he returned to

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

from Genoa. He made his official re-debut wearing Milan's red-black shirt on 18 January, winning 2–1 over

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It is ...

in the 16th round of the

2011–12 Coppa Italia The 2011–12 Coppa Italia, also known as TIM Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the 65th edition of the competition. As in the previous year, 78 clubs took part in the tournament. Internazionale were the cup holders. Napoli were the winners, thus q ...

. Genoa bought the remaining 50% of his rights for another €5 million on 23 May 2012 making him a full Genoa player, as well as El Shaarawy moved to Milan for another €10 million.

Udinese

On 3 January 2013, 50% registration rights of Merkel (€4 million) and

Masahudu Alhassan Masahudu Alhassan (born 1 December 1992) is a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays as a left-back. He made eight appearances for the Ghana national team between 2011 and 2012. Club career Alhassan spent his early career with the youth te ...

(€1.5 million) were sold to

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Football in Italy, Italian association football, football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a ...

for a total of €5.5 million, as part of

Antonio Floro Flores Antonio Mariano Floro Flores (born 18 June 1983) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a striker and current head coach of Casertana's U17 team. Career Early career Floro Flores was born in Naples and started his career a ...

's deal.Genoa CFC SpA ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 31 December 2013
PDF purchased from Italian CCIAA
In June 2013 Udinese acquired them outright for another €1.78 million (€1.16 million and €620,000).

Watford (loan)

On 3 January 2014, Merkel joined

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

on loan from Udinese until the end of the season. Merkel made his debut from the start in a 1–0 defeat to

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

on 11 January 2014, but he was sent off in second half stoppage time after a lunge on

Nick Blackman Nicholas Alexander Blackman (born 11 November 1989) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for the Barbados national football team. He can also play as a winger. He last played for Maccabi Tel Aviv. Early life Blackman was bo ...

. Merkel scored his first goal for Watford in a 3–0 home win against

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

on 15 March 2014.

Grasshopper (loan)

On 14 July 2014, Merkel signed for

Grasshopper Zürich Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

on a season long loan deal from parent club Udinese.

Pisa

On 21 July 2016, Merkel joined his former Milan teammate Gennaro Gattuso, who served as manager at

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

. However, after Gattuso suddenly left the club on 31 July 2016, Merkel was released by the club on 14 August 2016.

VfL Bochum

On 15 August 2016, Merkel signed with

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

Admira Wacker

On 5 February 2018, Merkel signed with Austrian club Admira Wacker. He signed his first goal in the match against

Wolfsberger AC Wolfsberger AC, commonly referred to as Wolfsberg or simply WAC, is an Austrian association football club from Wolfsberg, Carinthia, who currently play in the Austrian Bundesliga. Between the 2007–08 and 2011–12 seasons, Wolfsberger AC enter ...

Heracles Almelo

On 29 July 2018, Merkel signed with

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

side

Heracles Almelo Heracles Almelo is a Dutch professional football club based in Almelo, founded in 1903. The club has won the Dutch national title twice, in 1927 and 1941. Heracles won the Eerste Divisie title during the 2004–05 season, gaining promotion to th ...

Al-Faisaly

On 14 September 2020, Merkel signed with Saudi Professional League club Al-Faisaly.

Gaziantep

On 19 August 2021, Turkish club

Gaziantep F.K. Gaziantep Futbol Kulübü is a Turkish professional Association football, football club based in Gaziantep. Founded in 1988, the club currently plays in the Süper Lig, the highest tier of Turkish football. The club was founded as Sankospor in 19 ...

announced the signing of Merkel.

International career

Merkel made his international debut for Germany U-15 in a 4–1 win against Switzerland and has since represented Germany at all levels of youth international football up to under-19. In a December 2010 interview, he stated that he "dreams" of going on to play for the senior team one day. In another December 2010 interview he said that he is interested in representing

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Russian Football Union The Russian Football Union (russian: Российский Футбольный Союз, ''Rossiyskiy Futbolnyy Soyuz'' or RFS) is the official governing body of association football in the Russian Federation. With headquarters in Moscow, it org ...

president

Sergey Fursenko Sergey Aleksandrovich Fursenko (russian: Серге́й Александрович Фурсенко) (born 1954 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a Russian businessman. He is a brother of Andrei Fursenko. Career Since the early 1990s, Fursenko has ...

and Russia's coach Dick Advocaat both commented saying that he can't be called up as he does not actually possess Russian citizenship. Merkel noted that naturalization should not be a problem, considering that an American-born

Jon Robert Holden Jon Robert "J.R." Holden (russian: Джон Ро́берт Хо́лден; born August 10, 1976) is a retired American-Russian professional basketball player, currently serving as an NBA Director of Player Personnel for the Brooklyn Nets. Holden wa ...

played for the Russia national basketball team. In February 2011, Merkel's adviser Arthur Beck, father of German international Andreas Beck, confirmed the player's renewed wishes to be capped for Germany. In March 2015, Merkel decided to play for the Kazakhstan national team. He made his debut against

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

in a qualifying match for

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Milan *

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Al-Faisaly *

King Cup The King Cup (sometimes spelled King's), officially known as The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques' Cup ( ar, كأس خادم الحرمين الشريفين), is the Saudi Arabian football knockout cup competition, run by the Saudi Arabian Foot ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

Profile
at Assocalciatori.it {{DEFAULTSORT:Merkel, Alexander 1992 births Living people People from Almaty Region Kazakhstani footballers Kazakhstan international footballers Kazakhstani people of German descent Citizens of Germany through descent German footballers Germany youth international footballers German people of Kazakhstani descent Association football midfielders Kazakhstani emigrants to Germany Serie A players English Football League players Swiss Super League players 2. Bundesliga players Eredivisie players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Saudi Professional League players Süper Lig players VfB Stuttgart players A.C. Milan players Genoa C.F.C. players Udinese Calcio players Watford F.C. players Grasshopper Club Zürich players Pisa S.C. players VfL Bochum players FC Admira Wacker Mödling players Heracles Almelo players Al-Faisaly FC players Gaziantep F.K. footballers German expatriate footballers Kazakhstani expatriate footballers Kazakhstani expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in England Kazakhstani expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Austria Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Saudi Arabia Expatriate footballers in Turkey Kazakhstani expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Kazakhstani expatriate sportspeople in England Kazakhstani expatriate sportspeople in Italy Kazakhstani expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Kazakhstani expatriate sportspeople in Austria