Necati Ateş (pronounced "Ne-jah-ti A-tesh"), (born January 3, 1980 in İzmir) is a Turkish footballer who currently plays for Antalyaspor, as a striker; he is also a Turkish international.

[edit] Club career

Ateş made his professional debut with Altay and Adanaspor, scoring at an impressive rate. In 2004, he signed with country giants Galatasaray SK.

In 2005-06, Ateş played an integral part in Galatasaray's 16th league championship. However, on 25 July 2007, club manager Karl-Heinz Feldkamp officially reported to the board he was not planning to use the player in the upcoming campaign, which resulted in a transfer list; Ateş split (always on loan) 2007-08 between Ankaraspor and Istanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor.

For 2008-09, another loan, as Ateş joined Real Sociedad.^[1] Though heavily featured, he only managed to score once, and the Basque side finished sixth, thus failing to return to La Liga.

[edit] International career

Ateş made his Turkey national team debut during the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup, playing three (scoreless) times for the third-placed nation.

His first goal came on March 26, 2005, in a 2-0 home win against Albania, for the 2006 World Cup qualifiers.^[2] He also netted in the turbulent playoff against Switzerland, in November.^[3]

[edit] Honours

• Turkey:
  • FIFA Confederations Cup: 3rd place 2003

• Galatasaray:
  • Turkish League: 2005-06
  • Turkish Cup: 2004-05

[edit] Career statistics

As of 15 September 2009.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Necati Ateş at National-Football-Teams.com
• Profile at TFF.org (Turkish)
• Profile at transfermarkt.de (German)
• BDFutbol profile

v • d • e Turkey squad – 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup Third Place 1 Rüştü • 2 Fatih Sonkaya • 3 Bülent • 4 Fatih Akyel • 5 Alpay • 6 Ergün • 7 Serkan • 8 Volkan • 9 Tuncay • 10 Baştürk • 11 Nihat • 12 Ömer • 13 Ahmet • 14 Deniz • 15 İbrahim Üzülmez • 16 Okan • 17 Servet • 18 Hüseyin • 19 Necati • 20 Selçuk • 21 İbrahim Toraman • 22 Gökdeniz • 23 Murat • Coach: Güneş