Taşkın Çalış

Taşkın Çalış — Biography

Taşkın Çalış was born in Wetzlar, Germany, to a Turkish working-class family, and began playing football in the youth ranks of Alemannia Aachen before his performances drew attention and earned him a move to Borussia Mönchengladbach's academy. While there he was scouted by Turkey's national teams and made his first official appearance for the Turkey U-17 side against Portugal on August 26, 2009, going on to become a regular at that level. At the 2010 UEFA European Under-17 Championship in Liechtenstein he helped his team reach the semi-finals and was named among the tournament's ten best players; in 2013 he represented Turkey at the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

He moved into senior football with Gaziantepspor at the start of the 2011–12 season for a fee of €500,000, making his Süper Lig debut there, and after his contract was terminated he went on to play for Bursaspor, Akhisarspor, Yeni Malatyaspor, Gümüşhanespor, Menemenspor and Balıkesirspor. On February 7, 2021, playing for Balıkesirspor against Akhisar Belediyespor, he scored a rare hat-trick made up entirely of free kicks. He later played for Keçiörengücü and Bucaspor 1928, and signed with Kafkasspor in the summer of 2026.