Engin Bekdemir

Engin Bekdemir — Biography

Engin Bekdemir is an attacking midfielder born in Belgium and brought up in the academies of big clubs in the Netherlands and Portugal. He played for Turkey's youth national teams from under-15 to under-21, scored two goals as the side reached the quarter-finals of the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup, and has played for many clubs in Turkey; he now plays for Sarıyer.

He started playing at five with the amateur side in his home town. At eight he was noticed at a tournament in Eindhoven and taken in by PSV; in early 2008 he signed a three-year contract, moved up to the A1 team. In 2009, when he was about to step up to PSV's first team, he chose an offer from Porto instead; there he played in the under-19s and the reserve league and was occasionally included in first-team training. In the summer of 2011 he moved to Kayserispor, made his Süper Lig debut in the starting eleven against Fenerbahçe on September 23, 2011, and made 28 appearances for the club through 2013-14.

In later years he moved around Turkish clubs: he left Eskişehirspor in May 2016 and joined Osmanlıspor that summer, played for Gençlerbirliği and Altınordu in 2019, agreed terms with Çaykur Rizespor and Ankaraspor in 2020, and went to Sarıyer in August 2023. His national-team path began in 2007 with the under-15s; in 2011 he was called into the A2 squad and wore the A2 shirt after coming on in a friendly against Belarus, and in 2012 he played 7 matches for the under-21s.