Halil İbrahim Dervişoğlu (born 8 December 1999) is a 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 club

Gaziantep Gaziantep, historically Aintab and still informally called Antep, is a major city in south-central Turkey. It is the capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Medi ...

, on loan from Süper Lig club from

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

. Born in the Netherlands, he plays for the Turkey national team. Dervişoğlu began his career in his native Netherlands with

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top flig ...

and transferred to

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

in 2020. A fringe player during years in England, he transferred to Turkish club Galatasaray in 2023, for whom he had played twice previously on

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

away from Brentford.

Club career

Sparta Rotterdam

Dervişoğlu joined the

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

at the age of 10 and broke into the club's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

early in the 2017–18

Tweede Divisie Tweede Divisie (; ) is the highest amateur (and historically the lowest professional) football league in the Netherlands. It was established in 1956, together with the Eredivisie and the Eerste Divisie. Between 1956 and 1960 and between 1962 and 19 ...

season. 21 goals in 26 appearances saw him sign a contract extension in May 2018 and he made his maiden first team appearances during the club's unsuccessful

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

relegation playoff campaign. Dervişoğlu was a regular in the first team squad during the 2018–19

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

season and he helped the club to promotion back to the Eredivisie through the end-of-season playoffs. In August 2019, Dervişoğlu signed a pre-contract to depart

Het Kasteel The Sparta Stadion, nicknamed Het Kasteel (; "The Castle"), is a football stadium in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is the home ground of Sparta Rotterdam. It has a capacity of 11,026. History and layout The stadium is located in the neighbourhood o ...

on 1 January 2020. He made 19 appearances and scored five goals during the first half of the 2019–20 season and departed the club having made 58 appearances and scored 16 goals while a member of the first team squad.

Brentford

2019–20

On 9 August 2019, Dervişoğlu signed a pre-contract to join English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club

on 1 January 2020, for a reported €3 million fee. He signed a -year contract and was unveiled as a Brentford player on 3 January 2020. Down the pecking order for the attacking positions, Dervişoğlu made 7 appearances during the remainder of the 2019–20 season, which ended with defeat in the 2020 Championship play-off final.

2020–21 and loans to Twente and Galatasaray

After making just one

EFL Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

substitute appearance during the first month of the

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 ...

season and well behind Marcus Forss and new signing

Ivan Toney Ivan Benjamin Elijah Toney (born 16 March 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for Saudi Pro League club Al-Ahli and the England national team. Toney became the youngest player to represent Northampton Town when ...

in the centre forward pecking order, Dervişoğlu joined Eredivisie club

FC Twente Football Club Twente (), sometimes known internationally as FC Twente Enschede, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub E ...

until the end of the

season. After making 10 appearances without scoring, he was recalled by Brentford on the first day of the mid-season

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

. Dervişoğlu scored his first goal for the club on his first appearance back, with the opener in a 2–1

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

third round win over

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

on 9 January 2021. It proved to be his only appearance before he departed to join 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

on loan two weeks later. After a slow start to his Galatasaray spell due to testing positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

, Dervişoğlu broke from his substitute role into the starting lineup late in the season and scored three goals in the final four matches, though the club ultimately missed out on the Süper Lig title by one goal. He finished his spell with 12 appearances, three goals and in his absence, Brentford won promotion to the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

after victory in the 2021 Championship play-off final.

2021–2023 and loans to Galatasaray and Burnley

Despite being named in each of head coach

Thomas Frank Thomas Carr Frank (born March 21, 1965) is an American political analyst, historian, and journalist. He co-founded and edited '' The Baffler'' magazine. Frank is the author of the books '' What's the Matter with Kansas?'' (2004) and '' Listen, L ...

's first four matchday squads of the 2021–22 season, Dervişoğlu made just one appearance, with a start in a 3–1 EFL Cup second round win over

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. Formed in October 188 ...

. On 1 September 2021, for reasons of it being "a logical progression" for Dervişoğlu "to continue to play and develop", he rejoined Galatasaray on loan until the end of the 2021–22 season. He made 33 appearances and scored five goals during a mid-table season. Dervişoğlu made just one seven-minute substitute cameo during the opening month of the

2022–23 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 ...

Premier League season and well down the attacking pecking order, he joined Championship club

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

on a season-long loan on the final day of the summer transfer window. Dervişoğlu played just 71 minutes across 9 substitute appearances in all competitions during his spell, with his only goal coming with an

injury time Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the ga ...

winner in a 3–2 victory over

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional association football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The team plays in EFL League One, the third tier of English football, after suffering relegation fr ...

on 2 November 2022. Following a goalscoring appearance in Brentford's opening 2023–24

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

friendly, Dervişoğlu transferred out of the club. He made just 12 appearances, scoring one goal, during his years with Brentford. He ended his career with the club as its leading international goalscorer, with six goals.

Return to Galatasaray

On 16 July 2023, Dervişoğlu transferred to Süper Lig club Galatasaray on a permanent basis. He signed a four-year contract for a €500,000 fee. On 9 February 2024, after scoring four goals in 20 predominantly substitute appearances, he joined Süper Lig club

Hatayspor Hatayspor Kulübü, known as Atakaş Hatayspor due to sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional football club located in Antakya, Hatay Province. Hatayspor, founded in 1967 through a merger of three local clubs, aimed to promote sports and po ...

on loan until the end of the 2023–24 season. Dervişoğlu made 11 appearances without scoring for the relegation-threatened club. After failing to win a call into a matchday squad during the first five weeks of the 2024–25 season, Dervişoğlu joined Süper Lig club

on loan until the end of the season. He made 33 appearances and scored four goals during his spell.

International career

Of Turkish descent, Dervişoğlu was eligible to represent the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

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 ...

at international level. Capped by Turkey at U19 and U21 level, Dervişoğlu was named in Turkey's Euro 2020 squad and made his senior international debut in a pre-tournament friendly versus

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

on 27 May 2021. He started the match and scored the opening goal in the 2–1 victory. Dervişoğlu made two substitute appearances at Euro 2020, prior to Turkey's group stage exit.

Personal life

Dervişoğlu's cousin Mutlu is a former footballer and current

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Sparta Rotterdam *

promotion playoffs:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dervişoğlu, Halil 1999 births Living people Footballers from Rotterdam Turkish men's footballers Turkey men's international footballers Turkey men's youth international footballers Turkey men's under-21 international footballers Dutch men's footballers Dutch sportspeople of Turkish descent Turkish people of Dutch descent Men's association football forwards Sparta Rotterdam players Brentford F.C. players Tweede Divisie players Eerste Divisie players Eredivisie players English Football League players Turkish expatriate men's footballers Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Turkish expatriate sportspeople in England Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England FC Twente players Galatasaray S.K. footballers Hatayspor footballers Süper Lig players UEFA Euro 2020 players Premier League players Burnley F.C. players Gaziantep F.K. footballers 21st-century Dutch sportsmen Jong Sparta players 21st-century Turkish sportsmen