Full name Hakan Calhanoglu Name Hakan Calhanoglu Siblings Muhammed Calhanoglu Number 10 Nationality Turkish, German | Height 1.78 m Place of birth Mannheim, Germany Role Footballer | |
 | ||
Date of birth (1994-02-08) 8 February 1994 (age 21) 0000–0000 1. FC Turanspor Mannheim Current teams Turkey national football team (Midfielder), Bayer 04 Leverkusen (#10 / Midfielder, Forward) Parents Huseyin Calhanoglu, Naime Calhanoglu Similar People Karim Bellarabi, Omer Toprak, Gokhan Tore, Arda Turan, Stefan Kiessling Profiles | ||
Playing position | ||
Hakan Calhanoglu’s Free-Kicks - Advent Calendar Number 16
Hakan Çalhanoğlu ([ˈhaːkan ˈt͡ʃaɫhanoːɫu], born 8 February 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for German club Bayer Leverkusen and the Turkey national team. He is known for his ability of scoring from free kicks.
Contents
- Hakan Calhanoglus Free Kicks Advent Calendar Number 16
- Karlsruher SC
- Hamburg SV
- Bayer Leverkusen
- International career
- Style of play
- Club
- International
- International goals
- References
He began his career at Karlsruher SC in 2010 and moved to top-flight side Hamburger SV two years later, spending another season back at his first club on loan. His performance in his first Bundesliga season earned him a €14.5 million transfer to Leverkusen in 2014. Born in Germany, Çalhanoğlu opted to represent his ancestral Turkey at international level, making his senior debut in 2013.
Karlsruher SC
Born in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Çalhanoğlu began his career with Karlsruher SC in the 2. Bundesliga, although they were relegated to the 3. Liga at the end of his first season. He signed a four-year deal to join Hamburger SV in the 2012 summer transfer window, being loaned back for his first season. In that season on loan, he helped the team win the league and return to the second tier.
Hamburg SV
Çalhanoğlu made his Hamburg and Bundesliga debut on 11 August 2013, as the team opened the season with a 3–3 away draw at Schalke 04. He started the match, and was replaced by Dennis Aogo after 74 minutes. He scored his first goals for the club on the 31 August, in a 4–0 home win over Eintracht Braunschweig; after replacing goalscorer Rafael van der Vaart in the 79th minute, he scored a minute later and then netted again with a free kick.
On 5 February 2014, Çalhanoğlu signed a two-year extension to his Hamburg contract, to keep him at the club until 2018. On 20 February, Hakan scored an outrageous 41-yard free kick, against Borussia Dortmund in a 3–0 win, which ended Hamburg's bad run. As he saw no defensive wall or teammates to pass, he struck a shot that swerved viciously to find the back of the net. A delighted Çalhanoğlu said afterwards: 'I hit the free-kick the same way I do in training all the time. I'm delighted that I pulled it off!'. He was sent off for the first time in his career on 22 March, for his second booking in the 53rd minute of a 1–0 defeat away to VfB Stuttgart.
In his only full season at Hamburg, the team finished in 16th, and won a play-off against SpVgg Greuther Fürth on away goals to maintain their honour as the only team to feature in every season of the top flight.
Bayer Leverkusen
Hamburg initially wanted Çalhanoğlu to only be sold to a foreign club, but their purchase of Pierre-Michel Lasogga from Hertha BSC made such an exception no longer financially viable. On 4 July 2014, he left Hamburg for league rivals Bayer Leverkusen, signing a five-year contract for a transfer fee of €14.5 million. His transfer was controversial for him taking sick leave from Hamburg; he justified this by saying that he was stressed by aggression from fans, including vandalism of his car. He also criticised Hamburg's director Oliver Kreuzer, accusing him of betrayal. The move was later criticised by Son Heung-min, as a response to Çalhanoğlu calling his former Leverkusen teammate's transfer to Tottenham Hotspur "badly advised".
He made his debut for the club on 19 June, starting in a 3–2 away win at FC Copenhagen in the first leg of a UEFA Champions League qualification playoff. Four days later he played his first league game for his new club, a 2–0 win away to Borussia Dortmund on the opening day of the new season. On 27 August he scored his first Leverkusen goal, netting his team's second in a 4–0 win in the second leg of their European playoff. He scored his first league goal for the club on 12 September, Leverkusen's second in a 3–3 home draw against Werder Bremen. It was the first game in any competition that season which they did not win. Çalhanoğlu was nominated for the 2014 Golden Boy Award in October.
On 25 February 2015, he scored the only goal as Leverkusen defeated Atlético Madrid in the last 16 first leg in the Champions League. However, three weeks later in the second leg, he took their first attempt in a penalty shootout and had it saved by Jan Oblak, as Atlético went on to win. On 2 May, Çalhanoğlu opened a 2–0 home win over newly crowned league champions Bayern Munich, with a free kick.
He opened his second season at the club by scoring a penalty on 8 August in a 3–0 win at fourth-tier Sportfreunde Lotte in the first round of the DFB-Pokal. Two weeks later, with a free kick, he scored the only goal of a league win at Hannover 96. On 26 August, he opened a 3–0 win over Lazio as Bayer came back from a first-leg deficit to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League. In their first game of the group stage, Çalhanoğlu scored twice — including a penalty earned by a handball of his free kick — in a 4–1 home rout of BATE Borisov.
He opened his 2016–17 goalscoring account on 14 September in the 2–2 home draw against CSKA Moscow in a Champions League group stage game — the 50th goal in his senior club career.
On 2 February 2017, Çalhanoğlu received a four-month ban from FIFA for a breach of contract relating to his time at Karlsruhe. He received €100,000 from Turkish club Trabzonspor in 2011 after agreeing to sign with the club but later extended his contract with Karslruhe. Trabzonspor had initially sought repayment of the €100,000 paid as well compensation of €1 million but FIFA ruled that €100,000 and a four-month ban would suffice.
International career
Born in Germany, Çalhanoğlu opted to play for Turkey, qualifying for them through his family's origins in Trabzon. He played for the country at youth international level, including the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup on home soil. Turkey reached the last 16 before elimination by France. In their second group game on 28 June, Çalhanoğlu scored Turkey's equaliser in a 2–1 win over Australia at the Hüseyin Avni Aker Stadium in his ancestral city.
He made his senior international debut on 6 September 2013 in a World Cup qualifier in Kayseri, replacing Gökhan Töre for the last eight minutes of a 5–0 win against Andorra in Fatih Terim's first match back in charge. He made his first start on 25 May 2014 in a 2–1 friendly win against the Republic of Ireland at Dublin's Aviva Stadium, making way for Olcan Adın after 61 minutes.
Çalhanoğlu was sharing a hotel room with national team defender Ömer Toprak in October 2013 after a World Cup qualifying defeat to the Netherlands, when Gökhan Töre and an unknown armed friend entered the room, and threatened both roommates at gunpoint, ostensibly due to Töre's ex-girlfriend dating a friend of Toprak. The incident was hidden from Turkish media, but Çalhanoğlu revealed it to Germany's ZDF television channel. Töre did not return to the national team until October 2014, when both Çalhanoğlu and Toprak were injured. The following month, with both players back to fitness and form, both were left out by Terim for a friendly against Brazil and a UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying match against Kazakhstan while Töre remained. Çalhanoğlu questioned his omission from the team, while Terim defended his own decision and said that Töre deserved to be forgiven. In June 2015, Çalhanoğlu and Töre reconciled.
On 31 March 2015, Çalhanoğlu scored his first international goal in a 2–1 friendly win away to Luxembourg, a 30-yard strike with three minutes remaining. He scored two more in a 4–0 home friendly win over Bulgaria on 8 June, the latter being a free kick. His first competitive goal came on 10 October, a cross which secured a 2–0 away win over the Czech Republic in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying.
Çalhanoğlu became the first Turk to score against England, in the 11th match between the two nations, a friendly at the City of Manchester Stadium on 22 May 2016. He equalised in the 2–1 defeat.
Style of play
Çalhanoğlu has been likened to Mesut Özil, another German-born midfielder of Turkish ancestry. He expressed a desire to be the equivalent of Özil in the Turkish national team.
He is known for scoring from free kicks, and models his set-piece technique on those of Cristiano Ronaldo and especially Juninho Pernambucano. In December 2013, Talksport called him "a playmaker destined for the top", praising his dedication and passing ability. Former England international Owen Hargreaves said on BT Sport in August 2015 that Çalhanoğlu's style of play would fit Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur.