Ercan Kara (born 3 January 1996) is an Austrian 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 lea ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English, is an Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the f ...

, and the Austria national team. He has previously played for Slovan HAC, Austria Wien II,

FC Mauerwerk Fußballclub Mauerwerk is an Football in Austria, Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. From September 2014 to June 2018, the club played under the name ''FC Karabakh Wien''. Currently playing in the Austrian Region ...

SV Horn Sportverein Horn is a football club based in the city of Horn, Austria, which competes in the Austrian Regionalliga East, one of the third tiers of Austrian football, following relegation from the 2. Liga in the 2024–25. Founded in 192 ...

and

across five divisions of the Austrian football pyramid as well as

Orlando City SC Orlando City Soccer Club is an American professional soccer club based in Orlando, Florida. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Owned by Zygi, Leonard, and Mark Wilf, it is the sister club of ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

Club career

Slovan HAC

Kara came through the Slovan HAC youth system. On 13 November 2011, he made his senior debut for Slovan's first team as a 15-year-old in the fourth-tier

Wiener Stadtliga The Wiener Stadtliga is an Austrian Landesliga conference, one of the fourth-highest soccer leagues in Austrian football. Mode In the Wiener Stadtliga, a total of 16 football clubs from Vienna and the neighboring province of Lower Austria partic ...

as a 60th-minute substitute for Burak Özbek in a 5–1 defeat at home to Nußdorfer AC. In his debut season, Kara made ten league appearances and a further appearance in the local Wiener Cup, but did not score. On 25 May 2013, Kara scored his first senior goal for Slovan, in a 3–2 Wiener Stadtliga defeat against

Post SV Wien Post Sportverein Wien is a multi-sports club from the city of Vienna in Austria, and today operates in addition to football another 23 sections, including handball, field hockey, tennis, basketball, volleyball, futsal, table tennis, bowling, brid ...

. It was his only goal of the season in 29 appearances. Slovan took voluntary relegation to the sixth tier Wiener Oberliga A. In the 2013–14 season, Kara scored 32 goals in 27 Oberliga appearances but the team did not achieve promotion following a seventh-place finish.

Austria Wien II

Ahead of the 2014–15 season, 18-year-old Kara signed with

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the most trophies of any Aust ...

, spending two seasons with the club's reserve team in the third-tier Regionalliga Ost. He made 16 appearances and scored once. His playing time was limited as academy director Ralf Muhr expressed doubts about his fitness level.

FC Mauerwerk

In 2016, Kara returned to the Wiener Stadtliga with Karabakh Wien (later renamed

in 2018). Kara finished his first season with the team as the Wiener Stadtliga top goalscorer with 35 goals in 30 appearances as the team won the division title and promotion to the Regionalliga Ost. In the following two seasons, Kara again led the league in goals with 26 and 22 goals respectively as FC Mauerwerk earned 5th-place and 2nd-place finishes.

SV Horn

In July 2019, Kara signed with

of the 2. Liga. He made his competitive SV Horn debut on 20 July 2019 in an

ÖFB Cup The Austrian Football Association (; ÖFB) is the governing body of football in Austria. It organises the football league, Austrian Bundesliga, the Austrian Cup and the Austria national football team, as well as its female equivalent. It is based ...

first round game against FCM Traiskirchen, scoring twice in a 5–1 victory. He made his 2. Liga debut six days later, scoring another two goals as Horn beat Austria Wien II 5–1. With 13 goals in 16 appearances in his debut 2. Liga, Kara attracted first division interest and was sold by Horn after only six months.

Rapid Wien

In January 2020,

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

club

signed Kara to a two-and-a-half-year contract. He made his debut on 23 February 2020, entering as an 81st-minute substitute for

Christoph Knasmüllner Christoph Knasmüllner (born 30 April 1992) is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Admira Wacker. Career He began his career with Austria Wien and played for the reserves, making his debut 1–3 loss agai ...

with Rapid trailing 2–1 to

TSV Hartberg TSV Hartberg, currently known as TSV Egger Glas Hartberg for sponsorship reasons, is an association football club based in Hartberg, Styria, Austria. Founded in 1946, the club competes in the Austrian Football Bundesliga, the top tier of the Aust ...

and scored a 90+3rd-minute game-tying goal. In total, Kara scored three goals in nine appearances in the second half of the season. In his first full season with the club, Kara appeared in all 32

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

games and scored 15 goals, the fourth-highest in the league and the most in the Rapid squad. He also made his continental debut during the 2020–21 season, on 26 August 2020 against

Lokomotiva Zagreb Nogometni klub Lokomotiva Zagreb (), commonly known as Lokomotiva Zagreb or simply Lokomotiva, is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. It competes in the Croatian First Football League, the country's top division. Founded in 1 ...

in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round, scoring the only goal in a 1–0 win. The team lost in the third qualifying round, dropping them in to the

2020–21 UEFA Europa League group stage 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 ...

. Kara scored two Europa League goals, both in a 3–1 win over Irish team

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

, as Rapid finished third behind

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

Molde Molde () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town and the seat of Molde Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Pen ...

. In March 2021, Rapid head coach

Dietmar Kühbauer Dietmar ("Didi") Kühbauer (born 4 April 1971) is an Austrian professional football manager and former player who is currently the head coach of Austrian Bundesliga club Wolfsberger AC. Club career Born in Heiligenkreuz, Burgenland, Kühbauer ...

likened Kara's height, acrobatic ability and goalscoring prowess to that of a

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Ibrahimović is known for his acrobatic strikes and Volley (association footba ...

with fans later nicknaming him "Karabrimovic" on social media.

Orlando City

On 27 January 2022, with only six months left on his Rapid contract, Kara was sold to

team Orlando City ahead of the 2022 season for a reported $800,000. He signed a three-year

Designated Player A designated player may refer to: *Designated Player Rule, a Major League Soccer rule for players over the salary cap *Designated player (NBA), a National Basketball Association exemption for contract extensions * Designated player (softball), a so ...

contract with additional club options in 2025 and 2026. Ercan scored his first goal in

U.S. Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States. It is the country's oldest ongoing national soccer competition. The competition was first held duri ...

competition on 10 May 2022, during a 2-1 round of 32 victory over the

Philadelphia Union The Philadelphia Union are an American professional soccer club based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on February 28, 2008, the Union began ...

Samsunspor

On 2 September 2023, Kara transferred to Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

club

Samsunspor Samsunspor Kulübü, officially known as Samsunspor Football Club Joint Stock Company, or as Reeder Samsunspor due to sponsorship agreements, is a Turkey, Turkish Football club (association football), professional football club that competes in t ...

for an undisclosed fee.

Return to Rapid Wien

On 6 February 2025, Kara returned to

on loan. On July 1st 2025, Kara made a permanent transfer to Rapid Wien, signing a two-year contract.

International career

Born in Austria, Kara is of Turkish descent and was also eligible to represent

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

internationally. In January 2021, Kara said in a press conference that while he was aware Turkey was monitoring him and would consider representing them, he had only been contacted by Austrian officials. In March 2021,

Franco Foda Franco Foda (born 23 April 1966) is a German football manager and former player who is the manager of Kosovo national team. Playing career Foda appeared in over 400 top-flight matches in (West) Germany, Switzerland and Austria. During his seco ...

called up Kara to the Austria national team for the first time. He made his national team debut on 31 March 2021, coming on as a 74th-minute substitute for

Xaver Schlager Xaver Schlager (; born 28 September 1997) is an Austrian footballer who plays as central midfielder for Bundesliga club RB Leipzig and the Austria national team. Club career Red Bull Salzburg After playing for the youth team of SC St. Valenti ...

in a 4–0 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying loss to

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. The game was played behind closed doors at

Ernst-Happel-Stadion Ernst-Happel-Stadion (), known as Praterstadion until 1992, is a association football, football stadium in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Austria's capital Vienna. With 50,865 seats, it is the largest stadium in Austria. It was built between 1 ...

in his hometown, Vienna. In April 2021, Turkey manager

Şenol Güneş Şenol Güneş (, born 1 June 1952) is a Turkish football manager and former player who is currently the director of professional football for Süper Lig club Trabzonspor. His most notable managerial achievements to date include coaching the T ...

admitted that he had missed out on cap-tying Kara having not been able to travel to Austria to watch him in person due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 9 October 2021, Kara made his first start in Austria's 2–0 away win against the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

in World Cup qualification, assisting the opening goal scored by Konrad Laimer.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''As of 15 November 2021''

Honours

FC Mauerwerk *

: 2016–17 Orlando City *

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Individual *

golden boot: 2016–17 * Regionalliga Ost golden boot: 2017–18, 2018–19

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kara, Ercan 1996 births Footballers from Vienna Living people 21st-century Austrian sportsmen Austrian sportspeople of Turkish descent Men's association football forwards Austrian men's footballers Austria men's international footballers SK Slovan HAC players FC Mauerwerk players SV Horn players SK Rapid Wien players Orlando City SC players Samsunspor footballers Austrian Landesliga players Austrian Regionalliga players 2. Liga (Austria) players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Major League Soccer players Designated Players (MLS) Süper Lig players Austrian expatriate men's footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey