Volkan Demirel
Demirel in 2008 against Chelsea FC
Personal information
Full name	Volkan DEMİREL
Date of birth	October 27, 1981 (1981-10-27) (age 28)
Place of birth	Istanbul, Turkey
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Fenerbahçe
Number	1
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2000–2002 2002–	Kartalspor Fenerbahçe	051 (0) 125 (0)
National team2
2001–2003 2004–	Turkey U21 Turkey	021 (0) 057 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 19 August 2009. * Appearances (Goals)

Volkan Demirel (born 27 October 1981 in Istanbul) is a Turkish football goalkeeper currently playing for Fenerbahçe S.K. of the Turkish Süper Lig and the Turkish national team. He is dating Miss Belgium 2009 Zeynep Sever.^[1][2]

[edit] Club career

Volkan started his career as a youth player at Kartalspor and played 51 matches for the club. He transferred to Fenerbahçe during the 2002–03 season, making his debut on 26 April 2003 against Samsunspor for a league match.^[3] He is well known for his aggressive style. Volkan has been red-carded and banned many times because of jumping on opponent team's players and getting angry quickly in a match. He blames other players for irritating him by saying bad words.

After his recent performances over the years, Volkan has been linked with a move to the English Premier League. It is reported that both Manchester City and Arsenal are interested in him. On July 6th, 2009 Volkan Demirel signed a 4 year contract extension with Fenerbahçe S.K.^[4]

[edit] International career

[edit] Champions League

Volkan had a solid contribution for his team to access the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League on 4 March 2008 with saving three penalties whilst the shoot-outs against Sevilla FC in last 16 round second match. Therefore, he was described as a hero by UEFA official website due to his commanding performance throughout the game.^[5]

[edit] Euro 2008

During Euro 2008, he made one of the saves of Euro 2008 from a Ronaldo free kick, he also received a red card in the 92nd (90+1 with three more minutes of stoppage) minute for pushing Jan Koller over in the final match of the Euro 2008 Group A game versus the Czech Republic. Since Turkey had already made all of the substitutions it could, Tuncay Şanlı had to replace Demirel in goal. However, Turkey went on to win 3–2 and qualified for the quarter-final. On 18 June, it was announced that he would receive a two game suspension, missing Turkey's games against both Croatia and Germany. It was decided a two-game suspension deemed fit because Demirel did not leave the "specified area", which includes the bench where he sat instead.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• His official website (Turkish)
• Profile at fenerbahce.org (Turkish)
• Player Profil at TFF.org (Turkish)
• Profil at transfermarkt.de (German)
• Profile at Myspace.com

v • d • e Turkey squad – UEFA Euro 2008 Semi-finalists 1 Rüştü • 2 Servet • 3 Hakan • 4 Gökhan Zan • 5 Emre • 6 Mehmet Topal • 7 Mehmet Aurélio • 8 Nihat • 9 Semih • 10 Gökdeniz • 11 Tümer • 12 Tolga • 13 Emre Güngör • 14 Arda • 15 E. Aşık • 16 Uğur Boral • 17 Tuncay • 18 C. Kazım • 19 Ayhan • 20 Sabri • 21 Mevlüt • 22 Hamit • 23 Volkan • Coach: Terim