Fehmi Alpay Özalan (born 29 May 1973) is a Turkish former 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 ...

, football manager and politician. He last worked as the manager of

Samsunspor Samsunspor is a Turkish professional football club located in the city of Samsun. The club was formed through a merger of five clubs: 19 Mayıs, Akınspor, Fener Gençlik, Samsunspor, and Samsunspor Galatasaray.Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

between 1995 and 2005, making him Turkey's seventh-most capped player of all time. This included performances at two European Championships and the

2002 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 ...

, in which he was selected for the Team of the Tournament. Since 2018, he is a member of the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...

for the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Club career

Early career

His senior career started at

Soma Linyitspor Türkiye Kömür İşletmeleri Soma Linyit Spor Kulübü, shortly TKİ Soma Linyitspor, colloquially known as Soma Linyitspor, is a Turkish football club located in Manisa. The world "linyit" means brown coal in Turkish language, which commemorat ...

TFF Third League TFF 3. Lig (Turkish Football Federation Third League) is the fourth level in the Turkish football league system. It was founded in 2001–02 season as a continuation of then third level division Turkish Third Football League.Turkish Third Footb ...

. His performances caught the eyes of the biggest teams in Turkey. In 1993, Özalan signed for one of the major Turkish clubs

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, and ...

. Özalan set a record in the

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 ...

, earning three red cards in the space of six months. He played 148 matches for Beşiktaş, netting nine times. After six years at the club, a new deal could not be negotiated. His contract was initially bought by Siirt Jetpaspor, and he was then loaned to Fenerbahçe. In his sole season at Fenerbahçe, he played 26 matches, and found the net three times.

Aston Villa

After superlative performances for his country at Euro 2000, Özalan signed for English club

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa P ...

. He enjoyed a good first season with Villa and he became a fan favourite. His abilities caught the interest of

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional Association football, football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football league system, English football. The club was ...

. His partnership with Olof Mellberg as central-defensive partners was cut short as Özalan injured his ankle which sidelined him for the remainder of the season. He recovered just in time for the

, in which he formed the core of an obstinate Turkish defensive unit. They finished third and he was elected into the team of the tournament. The biggest clubs in Europe took note of his performances in the Far East, including the likes of

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional Football team, football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish footb ...

and Internazionale. Aston Villa manager

Graham Taylor Graham Taylor (15 September 1944 – 12 January 2017) was an English football player, manager, pundit and chairman of Watford Football Club. He was the manager of the England national football team from 1990 to 1993, and also managed Lincoln ...

refused to sell him, which was the beginning of Özalan's downfall at

Villa Park Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway statio ...

. Media reports and comments made by Taylor led to Özalan becoming a very unpopular figure at the club, missing much of the 2002–03 season. Their goalkeeper,

Peter Schmeichel Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a s ...

, defended Özalan in his article in the English newspaper, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

''. Özalan returned to the Aston Villa team for the beginning of the 2003–04 season. In his first home game against Charlton Athletic, he was booed when walking on to the pitch by his own fans. However Özalan went on to score the first goal of that game. In consequence to his earlier booing, Özalan's goal celebration served to mock the Aston Villa fans by placing his finger on his mouth. He was again dropped due to their angry reaction. The Turkish defender was then made public enemy number one in England in late 2003 after a run-in with

David Beckham David Robert Joseph Beckham (; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending f ...

during the

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

qualifier in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. He first confronted the England skipper after his first-half penalty miss, glowering over him and rubbing heads with him in full view of the referee. He followed that up by prodding a finger into Beckham's face as the players came off the pitch at half-time, sparking a tunnel brawl. Due to the angry reactions in England, his contract was terminated by Aston Villa on 23 October. Club chairman

Doug Ellis Sir Herbert Douglas Ellis, (3 January 1924 – 11 October 2018) was an English entrepreneur. He was the chairman of Aston Villa Football Club from 1968 to 1975, and again from 1982 until 2006. Ellis was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours ...

declared:

Incheon United

Werder Bremen,

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of thr ...

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

, Hertha Berlin, and

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

wanted to sign Özalan. However, the European transfer window was closed and he did not want to wait to play football again. He opted for a move to South Korean

K-League K League (Hangul: K리그) is South Korea's professional football league. It includes first division K League 1 and second division K League 2. History Until the 1970s, South Korean football operated two major football leagues, the National ...

side Incheon United's first foray into professional football in 2004. He became a South Korean citizen while he was playing there.

Urawa Red Diamonds

Özalan spent less than six months with the team before moving to the

J1 League The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the ...

with

Urawa Red Diamonds , colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, is a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the ...

. In his first season with the club, he was honoured with the best defender of the year award. The following season with the club proved to be a catastrophe. Alpay received three red cards in seven matches. The Japanese club annulled his contract due to these disciplinary problems.

1. FC Köln

In 2005, Özalan signed a one-year-contract with 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 ...

team

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballspi ...

. This transfer ensured his place back into the national team. They were relegated, and

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is admi ...

, Celtic,

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other dep ...

and Beşiktaş were interested in signing him. Özalan stayed with the club, stating that his decision was influenced by his family's happiness in Germany.

International career

Özalan made 87 appearances for the Turkey national team, netting four times. Three of those goals were a hat-trick against

Macedonia Macedonia most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...

during 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 ...

qualifier. He was one of the best players for his country in the

, where the team reached an unprecedented third place in the tournament. Özalan also featured for Turkey in Euro 1996, Euro 2000 and the

2003 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup football tournament was the sixth FIFA Confederations Cup, held in France in June 2003. France retained the title they had won in 2001, but the tournament was overshadowed by the death of Cameroon player Marc-Viv ...

. A very memorable moment in Özalan's career in complete contrast to his general fame was during Euro 1996 in the game between

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

and Turkey. In a counterattack, he allowed Croatian

Goran Vlaović Goran Vlaović (born 7 August 1972) is a Croatian retired footballer who played as a striker. Club career Born in Nova Gradiška, Vlaović started his professional career with Osijek in 1989 and moved to HAŠK Građanski in 1992, before goin ...

to dribble the ball half the field without fouling him to stop the attack. In consequence, Vlaović scored the single goal of the game and Turkey lost. Özalan was awarded with a fair-play award due to his action. On 24 June 2000, he was sent off during the first half of the Euro 2000 quarter-final against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

, which his country lost by a score of 2–0. His final match was against Switzerland in the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

second leg play-off tie in Istanbul, conceding a second-minute penalty by handball, converted by

Alexander Frei Alexander Frei or Alex Frei (born 15 July 1979) is a Swiss professional football coach and a former player who played as a forward. He is currently the manager of Basel. He began his career at Basel, going on to various other clubs in Switzerlan ...

which resulted in Turkey's elimination despite a 4–2 victory. Özalan was involved in a brawl at the end of the game and was awarded a six-match ban by FIFA.

Politician

In the

Parliamentary elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ...

of 24 June 2018, he was elected a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey representing Izmir for the AKP. According to his own statement he was more excited the first day in parliament than when playing football before 85'000 people. In 2021, he was involved in a brawl in the Turkish parliament where he was seen fighting against

Özgür Özel Özgür Özel (born 21 September 1974) is a Turkish politician from the Republican People's Party (CHP) who has served as a parliamentary group leader of the CHP since June 2015, along with Engin Altay and Levent Gök. He is a former pharmaci ...

, a politician of the Republican People's Party (CHP). During the Claw lock military operation against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), he demanded the cancellation of a concert of

Aynur Dogan Aynur is a Turkish language, Turkish and Azerbaijani language, Azerbaijani given name for females. As it is derived from the Turkish word ":wikt:ay#Turkish, ay" and the Arabic word ":wikt:nur#Turkish, nur", its literal meaning is moonlight. Giv ...

in Istanbul, because he deems her a supporter of the PKK.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

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

Honours

Beşiktaş *

: 1994–95 *

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup (Turkish: ''Türkiye Kupası'') is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası ...

: 1994, 1998 *

Turkish Super Cup The Turkish Super Cup (Turkish: ''TFF Süper Kupa''), as it is currently known, is the annual super cup football match contested between the previous season's Süper Lig champions and the Turkish Cup winners in Turkey. It was originally known as ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

Aston Villa *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, ' betting pool'),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International F ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

Urawa Red Diamonds *

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or also Japan FA Cup is a Japanese football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football match in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formation of the J.League, Japan Football League and their predecessor, ...

: 2005 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– ...

Individual *

All Star Team: 2002 *

Defender of the Year: 2004

Footnotes

:A. In 2001 Aston Villa were one of three co-winners of the Intertoto Cup with Paris Saint-Germain and

Troyes AC Espérance Sportive Troyes Aube Champagne (ESTAC), commonly known as Troyes, is a football in France, French association football club, based in Troyes, who play in Ligue 1, Football in France, the highest level of France's football league syst ...

. The club also won all of their

2008 Intertoto Cup The 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup was the last UEFA Intertoto Cup football tournament, the 14th to be organised by UEFA and the third since the competition's format was given a major overhaul. Fifty teams were invited, with the eleven winners after the ...

rounds to be named joint-winners and progress to the UEFA Cup, the format was changed in 2006 to award the Intertoto Trophy to the side progressing furthest 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 ...

, which was S.C. Braga.

References

External links

* (as coach)
Alpay Ozalan short-video
* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ozalan, Alpay 1973 births Living people Turkish politicians Justice and Development Party (Turkey) politicians Association football defenders Turkish footballers Footballers from İzmir Turkey under-21 international footballers Turkey international footballers Altay S.K. footballers Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers Aston Villa F.C. players Incheon United FC players Urawa Red Diamonds players 1. FC Köln players Süper Lig players Premier League players K League 1 players J1 League players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players UEFA Euro 2000 players Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Turkey Mediterranean Games medalists in football Competitors at the 1993 Mediterranean Games Turkish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in South Korea Expatriate footballers in Japan Expatriate footballers in Germany Turkish expatriate sportspeople in England Turkish expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Japan Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Germany