İbrahim Halil Çolak (born 29 January 1988) is a Turkish 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 ...
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
TFF Second League
TFF 2. Lig (Turkish Football Federation Second League), is the third level in the Turkish football league system. It was founded in the 2001–02 season with the name of ''Turkish Second League Category B'' as a continuation of the then second le ...
club
Balıkesirspor
Balıkesirspor is a Turkish club based in Balıkesir. Established in 1966, the football team played in the Süper Lig after achieving promotion having finished as runners-up of the TFF First League in 2013–14. The team's previous promotion was ...
Deventer
Deventer (; Sallands: ) is a city and municipality in the Salland historical region of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands. In 2020, Deventer had a population of 100,913. The city is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, ...
, a city in the Dutch province of Overijssel. Çolak started his career at local Deventer club IJsselstreek. He soon joined Go Ahead Eagles as a youth player. Go Ahead Eagles had a cooperation agreement with
FC Twente
Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedes ...
, and he joined their youth academy. In 2007, he won the national youth championship with the FC Twente A-juniors.
FC Twente
In the summer of 2007, Çolak was promoted the Twente's reserve squad, where he captured a place in the starting lineup under coach
Cees Lok
Cees Lok (born 18 August 1966) is a Dutch former professional footballer and manager. He currently works as a technical manager.
Playing career
Cees began his career at FC Wageningen before he entered service at NEC. There, he became a stable an ...
. Due to some good performances, he was called up by first team coach,
Fred Rutten
Fredericus Jacobus Rutten (; born 5 December 1962) is a Dutch football coach and former player. As a player, he spent his entire career with Twente during the years 1979 to 1992. Following his playing career, Rutten also managed Twente, before ...
for the match against
FC Utrecht
Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion Galgenwaard.
The club was formed in 1970 as a merg ...
. However, he didn't manage to become a part of the squad and was a reserve. On the last days of the transfer market in January 2008, Çolak signed a loan deal with
Cambuur Leeuwarden
SC Cambuur, also known as Cambuur Leeuwarden, or simply Cambuur, () is a Dutch football club from the city of Leeuwarden formed on 19 June 1964. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, after winning the 2020–21 ...
.
Loan deals (2008–09)
Çolak made his debut on 1 February 2008, two days after he was signed. His debut came in the home-match against
FC Zwolle
PEC Zwolle is a Dutch football club based in Zwolle, Netherlands. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie in the 2021–22 season. They have played in the Eredivisie for a tot ...
which ended in a 1–1 draw. He played the whole match. Çolak played 11 matches for Cambuur. He scored one goal.
On 27 July 2008, Go Ahead Eagles signed Çolak on a one-year deal, which meant a return to his hometown of Deventer. In the first league match of the season, an away-match against
VVV-Venlo
VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, followin ...
, he was a 57th-minute substitute for Jeffrey Vlug. The game eventually ended in a 5–0 loss for Go Ahead.
In the following match, a home game against
Fortuna Sittard
Fortuna Sittard (; li, Fortuna Zitterd ) is a football club in Sittard, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was established through a merger ...
, Çolak was in the starting lineup and directly provided an assist. The ending result was 1–1.
Some weeks after at a training session, he broke his
fibula
The fibula or calf bone is a human leg, leg bone on the Lateral (anatomy), lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long ...
which ruled him out for a couple of weeks. On 23 November he made his comeback with a place in the starting lineup in the match against
FC Den Bosch
FC Den Bosch () is a football club from 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
They were founded 18 August 1965, as FC Den Bosch/BVV. They are the successor of BVV (1906) and Wilhelmina (1890). Their stadium is called ' De Vliert', an 8,500 all-seater. ...
, which ended in a goalless draw (0–0). In total he played 23 matches in which he scored six times.
Go Ahead Eagles
On 24 April 2009, it became clear that Çolak would stay another season on loan with Go Ahead Eagles. A month later, the loan deal was converted into a final transition, which meant that he was now definitively a Go Ahead player. He signed a three-year contract. In the first half of the 2009–10 season, Çolak scored 10 goals in 21 matches, making him an important player for the Eagles. He also scored in the
KNVB Cup
The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. O ...
, including against
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 ...
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 t ...
. His good performances were not going unnoticed. It was rumoured that
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 ...
were interested in the services of the young Turkish winger.
Kasımpaşa
On 12 August 2010 he moved to
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 ...
and signed a five-year deal with
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 ...
side Kasımpaşa. On 26 March 2015, Çolak was released by Kasımpaşa.
Later career
On 4 July 2015, Çolak was signed by
Akhisarspor
Akhisarspor Kulübü (Akhisar Sports Club), commonly known as Akhisarspor, is a Turkish professional football club located in the city of Akhisar.
on a two-year contract. He would also play for
Ä°stanbulspor
İstanbulspor is a Turkish football and sports club founded by Istanbul High School students in 1926. In 2004–05 they were relegated from the Turkish Süper Lig (Super League) to TFF 1. Lig. For many decades it was the fourth most famous and ...
,
Balıkesirspor
Balıkesirspor is a Turkish club based in Balıkesir. Established in 1966, the football team played in the Süper Lig after achieving promotion having finished as runners-up of the TFF First League in 2013–14. The team's previous promotion was ...
and
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.Voetbal International: Halil Çolak