Sedat Balkanlı
Association-football-player · died at 44
Profile
| Age | died at 44 |
|---|---|
| Birth date | January 15, 1965 |
| Birthplace | İstanbul |
| Died | April 29, 2009 |
| Profession | Association-football-player |
| Zodiac sign | Capricorn |
Sedat Balkanlı — Biography
Sedat Balkanlı (15 January 1965, İstanbul – 29 April 2009, İstanbul) was a Turkish former international footballer of Albanian immigrant descent. He played for Gaziosmanpaşa, Konyaspor, Bursaspor, Galatasaray, Eskişehirspor and Fenerbahçe. Although he played in defense, the headed goals he scored in critical matches earned him the nickname "altın kafa" ("golden head").
In the 1994–95 season he scored 9 goals for Galatasaray, all of them headers. He wore the senior national team jersey for the first and only time on 28 April 1993, in a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying group match away to Norway that ended in a 3–1 defeat.
Diagnosed in 1997 with ALS, a one-in-a-million disease, Sedat Balkanlı continued to live on a ventilator even though doctors had told him he could expect to survive only two years with the incurable, progressive nerve disease. Sedat Balkanlı died on Wednesday, 29 April 2009, at the Amerikan Hastanesi, where he had been admitted. He was buried at Karlıtepe Cemetery.
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