Yusuf Demir (; born 2 June 2003) 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

right winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

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

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 ...

Club career

Early life

Yusuf Demir was born on 2 June 2003, in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria, to Turkish parents, with his family roots in

Trabzon Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. The city was founded in 756 BC as "Trapezous" by colonists from Miletus. It was added into the Achaemenid E ...

, Turkey.

Rapid Wien

On 26 May 2019, Demir signed a professional contract with

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 ...

. Demir made his professional debut with Rapid Wien in a 3–0

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

win over Admira on 14 December 2019. On 15 September 2020, Demir scored a goal for Rapid Wien in 2–1 defeat against Gent in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, at 17 years, three months and 13 days old, to become the youngest Austrian scorer since Gerd Wimmer in 1994, aged 17 years, ten months and 27 days.

Barcelona

In July 2021,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

announced the signing of Demir on a season-long loan from Rapid Wien for €500,000, with an option to make the move permanent in the future for a further €10 million, but if the player reached ten appearances the club would be obligated to activate it. On 23 August 2021, Demir made his competitive debut against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

. He came on as a replacement for Martin Braithwaite after 61 minutes, becoming Barça's youngest foreign debutant since

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...

(aged 17 years and 114 days) who did so in 2004. On 31 August 2021, Demir was registered by Barcelona to play in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

as a first-team player after he was previously set to be registered in the reserves. He was handed the number 11 jersey that was previously held by Ousmane Dembélé. On 13 January 2022, the loan was terminated, and Demir returned to Austria.

Galatasaray

On 8 September 2022, he signed a four-year contract with

, for a reported transfer fee of €6 million. Demir became the champion in the

in the 2022–23 season with the

team. Defeating Ankaragücü 4-1 away in the match played in the 36th week on 30 May 2023, Galatasaray secured the lead with two weeks before the end and won the 23rd championship in its history.

Basel (loan)

In the statement made by Galatasaray on 16 August 2023, it was announced that Demir was sent on a year-long loan to Swiss team

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. Basel confirmed the deal the same evening. He joined Basel's first team for their 2023–24 season under head coach

Timo Schultz Timo Schultz (born 26 August 1977) is a German former footballer, and manager, who was most recently the manager of 1. FC Köln. Career Born in Wittmund, Schultz is a youth product of Werder Bremen. After playing for the club's reserves for fou ...

. Demir played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game in the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

on 3 September as Basel played a 2–2 draw with

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. He scored his first goal for his new team in the Swiss Cup second round away game on 16 September. He scored the team's third goal in the 33rd minute, as Basel went on to win 8–0 against amateur club FC Bosporus, to qualify for the next round. Demir was forced to watch the team's last five league games in that calendar year from the sidelines, due to a torn muscle fiber in his calf, suffered during Austria's U-21 0–0 draw against North Macedonia U-21 mid November.

International career

Demir was a youth international for Austria. He debuted for the senior Austria national team in a 3–1

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification was the FIFA World Cup qualification, qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar national football team, Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Par ...

win over 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 ...

on 28 March 2021.

Personal life

Yusuf is the older brother of the Turkish youth international footballer Furkan Demir.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Galatasaray *

: 2022–23, 2024–25 *

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup () 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''. Now Ziraat Bankası is ...

: 2024–25

References

External links

* *
Yusuf Demir
at OEFB {{DEFAULTSORT:Demir, Yusuf 2003 births Living people Footballers from Vienna Austrian men's footballers Austrian sportspeople of Turkish descent Austria men's youth international footballers Austria men's under-21 international footballers Austria men's international footballers Men's association football forwards SK Rapid Wien players FC Barcelona players Galatasaray S.K. footballers FC Basel players Austrian Regionalliga players Austrian Football Bundesliga players La Liga players Süper Lig players Swiss Super League players Austrian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland 21st-century Austrian sportsmen