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Yıldıray Baştürk – the number 10 from Bayer Leverkusen

Yıldıray Baştürk is not only the first of three Turkish internationals to reach the UEFA Champions League final so far. He is also still the top-ranked Turkish player in the FIFA Ballon d’Or.

Yıldıray Baştürk was born on 24 December 1978 in Herne in the Ruhr region, the son of a miner. Baştürk’s first club to be discovered in the so-called football cages was Sportfreunde Wanne-Eickel, for whom he played from 1986 to 1987. Baştürk then moved to Wattenscheid 09.

In 1994 he came to Istanbul

Baştürk came to Türkiye in 1994 with a group of Turkish-born footballers living in Germany. He attracted attention with his football in matches against the youth teams of Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe in Istanbul and caught the eye of the then coach of the Turkish national teams, Fatih Terim, so that he played his first U-16 match in the national jersey against Romania on 18 October 1994.

Bids from Bayern and BVB – but Baştürk preferred VfL Bochum

Despite transfer offers from Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, Baştürk moved to VfL Bochum in the 1997/1998 season, playing under the guidance of coach Klaus Toppmöller. He was also called up to the Turkish national team and played his first match against Albania on 21 January 1998. Baştürk, who appeared in 115 competitive matches for VfL Bochum, where he played a total of four seasons, scored 20 goals and provided nine assists. In the 1998/1999 season he played with Stefan Kuntz, and in that season VfL Bochum said goodbye to the Bundesliga.

Goal against Barcelona and assist in Kadıköy

Baştürk was brought to Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the 2001/2002 season at the request of coach Klaus Toppmöller. He was supposed to play the first UEFA Champions League match of his career there against Fenerbahçe in the BayArena, but the match was postponed due to the attacks in the USA on 11 September 2001. Baştürk scored his first UEFA Champions League goal on 25 September 2001 in his side’s 2-1 win over Barcelona. He gave his first UEFA Champions League assist to Ulf Kirsten in the match against Fenerbahçe on 23 October 2001.

The first Turk in the Champions League final

Baştürk, who played a big part in his team’s progress to the final with his assists in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, started in the starting eleven in the 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid in Glasgow on 15 May 2002 and stayed on the pitch for 90 minutes. He became the first Turkish player to reach the UEFA Champions League final and made history. Iker Casillas, who also saved a shot from Baştürk, became the star of the match. Coach Klaus Toppmöller used 20 players in a total of 17 matches in the 2001/2002 UEFA Champions League. Baştürk, along with Jörg Butt and Bernd Schneider, was one of the three players to play in all 17 matches. He provided a total of five assists throughout the tournament and was one of the players with the most assists in his team, along with Bernd Schneider and Ze Roberto respectively.

The Turk with the best position in the Ballon d’Or Rankings

Bayer 04 Leverkusen relinquished their lead in the Bundesliga one week before the end of the 2001/2002 season and lost both the DFB Cup and the UEFA Champions League final. This situation demoralised Baştürk before the 2002 World Cup. He set up the only goal Türkiye scored in the 2-1 defeat to Brazil, and although he was the best on the pitch, he was taken off in the 66th minute by Şenol Güneş. Baştürk played in all seven matches of the 2002 World Cup, which Türkiye finished third, and played a total of 499 minutes. Baştürk was included in the list of candidates for the 2002 FIFA Ballon d’Or with his performances for Bayer 04 Leverkusen and the Turkish senior national team, finishing ninth with 13 points.

Move from the Bundesliga to the Premier League

After Baştürk ended his career with Bayer 04 Leverkusen after 114 competitive games, nine goals and 22 assists, he moved to Hertha BSC at the end of the 2003/2004 season. Baştürk played 88 competitive games in three seasons there, scoring 17 goals and providing 15 assists. He finished his career in the Bundesliga with VfB Stuttgart, whom he joined in the 2007/2008 season. There he played 43 competitive games, scored four goals and provided six assists. In the winter break of the 2009/10 season, he moved to Blackburn Rovers and quit there at the end of the season after only one game in the Premier League team.

Euro 2008: Exclusion from the squad

Fatih Terim initially invited Baştürk to join the 26-man national team squad for Euro 2008. But when the number of players in the squad had to be reduced to 23 before the tournament, one of the three names he cut was Baştürk’s. This decision before Euro 2008, for which he had spent a whole season preparing, was the turning point of his career. Baştürk could not recover from it and ended his career as a footballer, also due to his injuries, before he turned 33. Many Turkish clubs, including Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray and Trabzonspor, made transfer offers to Baştürk during his career, but the long-time figurehead of Turkish football turned them down. His goal was always to succeed in Europe.

By Klaus