İlhan Mansız

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İlhan Mansız (born August 10, 1975 - in Kempten im Allgäu, Bavaria, Germany) is a Turkish football player of Crimean Tatar origin, who gained international recognition at İstanbul's Beşiktaş JK, and was later acquired by the Vissel Kobe soccer club in Japan.

He attracted much attention from female fans due to his fashionable dressing style and hairdo, being listed among other soccer players such as David Beckham who are often categorized as metrosexuals. Being of Tatar origin, he gained many Japanese female fans because of his looks, which was an important factor in his transfer to Vissel Kobe.

İlhan made his debut for Turkey as a substitute during their final group-stage qualifier against Moldova in October 2001. The speedy striker earned his way onto coach Şenol Güneş' squad on the strength of an outstanding 2001-2002 season for Beşiktaş, when he led the Turkcell Super League in scoring and helped the squad to a third-place finish.

The goal of his career came in the 2002 World Cup quarterfinal against Senegal. He came on as a substitute for Hakan Şükür in the 67th minute, and netted a golden goal in the 94th minute to send Turkey through to the last four of the competition, in which they ended up taking 3rd place.

İlhan is something of the Beckham of the Turkish side, mobbed by screaming fans wherever he goes. And, like Beckham, he has lived up to his reputation off the field on it. Since making his debut, he has had a massive rise to prominence.

After his Japan journey, he signed a contract with Hertha Berlin but because of his injury, he never had a chance to play. His contract was cancelled due to a clause in the contract saying that if his knee was injured again, they would release him. After his short stint with Hertha Berlin, İlhan signed a one year contract with Turkish club Ankaragücü. He was slowly but surely coming back from his plague of injuries and helping Ankaragücü in the Turkcell Super League.

As of 2006/07 season, he retired from football.

[edit] External links

Turkey Turkey squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup Third Place Turkey

1 Rüştü | 2 Emre Aşık | 3 Bülent | 4 Fatih | 5 Alpay | 6 Arif | 7 Okan | 8 Tugay | 9 Hakan Şükür | 10 Baştürk | 11 Hasan Şaş | 12 Ömer | 13 İzzet | 14 Tayfur | 15 Nihat | 16 Ümit Özat | 17 İlhan Mansız | 18 Ergün | 19 Abdullah | 20 Hakan Ünsal | 21 Emre Belözoğlu | 22 Ümit Davala | 23 Zafer | Coach: Güneş
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