Arda Turan

Arda Turan — Biography

Arda Turan was born on January 30, 1987, in the Fatih district of Istanbul. He began playing football at age 8 with Altıntepsi Makelspor, an amateur team in Bayrampaşa, and joined Galatasaray's youth academy in 2000. After a loan spell at Manisaspor in the 2005–06 season, he returned to Galatasaray, was named team captain for the 2009–10 season, and won the Süper Lig, the Turkish Cup and the Turkish Super Cup with the club.

He transferred to Atlético Madrid in 2011, where he won the UEFA Europa League and La Liga among other titles, and scored a crucial goal in the 2014 UEFA Champions League semi-final that helped his team advance to the final; that same year he was the only Turkish-born player named in The Guardian's list of the world's 100 best footballers. He moved to Barcelona in 2015 and later returned to Turkish football, playing for İstanbul Başakşehir before rejoining Galatasaray.

Turan earned more than 100 caps and scored 17 goals for the Turkey national team, and was a key figure in the squad that reached the semi-finals of UEFA Euro 2008. He retired from playing in 2022 to pursue a coaching career and currently serves as head coach of Shakhtar Donetsk in the Ukrainian Premier League.