Fatih Tekke
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| Fatih Tekke | ||
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Fatih Tekke | |
| Date of birth | 9 September 1977 | |
| Place of birth |  Sürmene / Trabzon, Turkey |
|
| Height | 1.78m | |
| Nickname | Sultan | |
| Playing position | Striker | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Zenit Saint Petersburg | |
| Number | 61 | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1994 – 1998 1997 – 1998 1998 – 2000 2000 – 2003 2003 – 2006 2006 – present |
Trabzonspor Altay Trabzonspor Gaziantepspor Trabzonspor Zenit Saint Petersburg |
44 (5) 24 (8) 38 (6) 55 (28) 114 (77) 12 (4) |
| National team2 | ||
| 1998 – present | Turkey | 23 (9) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
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Fatih Tekke (born September 9, 1977) is a Turkish football player. He is a Turkish international, considered an extremely talented striker, and one of the most recognisable and popular sportsmen in Turkey today. Having spent most of his career at Trabzonspor, he recently transferred to Russian team Zenit Saint Petersburg. His transfer to Zenit (roughly $13.6 million[1]) made him the 16th most expensive transfer of 2006.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Career
[edit] Early career
Fatih Tekke was born in the small town of Sürmene in the province of Trabzon, and his skill at scoring goals allowed him to join the highly successful youth ranks of Trabzonspor, the local team. Fatih was still in his teens when he started to appear in the first team. Due to managerial upheaval and also personal spats with some of the coaching team, he did not manage to cement his place in the team.
[edit] Altay and Gaziantepspor
At the beginning of the 1997/1998 season he was loaned out to strugglers Altay SK, of İzmir. It was here that Fatih first demonstrated his incredible talent. In an unforgettable 5-4 defeat to Galatasaray, he scored a hat-trick, along with Turkish hero Hakan Şükür (of Galatasaray). In this period he made his first appearance for the Turkish national team. Tragedy followed a few weeks later when, at the peak of his form he broke his leg and was out of the game for six months. On his return to Trabzonspor, he did not manage to display the same level of confidence or ability as he was known to be capable of. The two years following his return from injury were plagued by being played out of position, and more disagreements with the coaching staff. Fatih already had a reputation as a troublemaker, rightly or wrongly, and despite his obvious talent Trabzonspor decided to allow him to leave. On his transfer to Gaziantepspor, he stated that he would never return. It was in Gaziantep that Fatih would show that he still had a knack for scoring goals. Here he re-established his himself in the eyes of the national team coach and made a return to the international sphere. However, as always, trouble reared its ugly head again. At the beginning of the 2002/2003 season he was excluded from the squad and told to find himself a new club. Once Trabzonspor came knocking, there was only one team he wanted to join. He forgot about the past and wanted to give it another try at the team he had supported all his life.
[edit] Return to Trabzonspor
Upon his return to Trabzonspor, he was given the captains armband. Not only did this help him to mature and calm his usual aggressive tendencies, but it seemingly helped his talent tenfold as well. At present, he is the most feared attacking player in Turkey, and the main striker in the Turkish national team. His game has progressed since his emergence as a hungry predator at Altay SK. He is now an extremely capable target man, holding the ball up to aid the speedy Trabzonspor attack and scoring many headed goals. He is able to use both his feet to set up teammates for goalscoring opportunities as well as having an extremely clinical finish. He has tremendous influence in the team and is one of the undoubted stars of the Premier Super League.
His stated aims are to play for a top club abroad, but he maintains that this is only an ambition he would be willing to undertake at a big European club. He has also said that he has no interest for playing in any other Turkish team now that he has established himself at Trabzonspor. His main aim at Trabzonspor is to win the league championship, having already collected two cup winners medals. Along with the two fellow club captains, Gokdeniz Karadeniz and Huseyin Cimsir, Fatih Tekke represents the success of the Trabzonspor youth academy. Not only are they all ever present in the Trabzonspor team, but they are also full Turkey internationals. He is a firm crowd favourite, and is approaching the peak of his career. Clubs like Feyenoord, Everton, Wigan, Arsenal, and Hertha Berlin were interested in Tekke. In July of 2006, he signed for Zenit Saint Petersburg. On August 6, 2006, Fatih Tekke scored on his debut for Zenit Saint Petersburg, a match where he came off the bench against Shinnik Yaroslavl and scored the only goal of the game for his team to win 1-0.
[edit] Record
His career record in the league in games played, and goals scored is as follows:
| Years | Club | Appearances | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994-95 | Trabzonspor | 4 | 0 |
| 1995-96 | Trabzonspor | 20 | 3 |
| 1996-97 | Trabzonspor | 18 | 2 |
| 1997-98 | Trabzonspor | 2 | 0 |
| 1997-98 | Altay SK (loan) | 24 | 8 |
| 1998-99 | Trabzonspor | 16 | 4 |
| 1999-00 | Trabzonspor | 22 | 2 |
| 2000-01 | Gaziantepspor | 31 | 16 |
| 2001-02 | Gaziantepspor | 24 | 12 |
| 2002-03 | Trabzonspor | 28 | 13 (1 goal for Gaziantepspor) |
| 2003-04 | Trabzonspor | 24 | 11 |
| 2004-05 | Trabzonspor | 34 | 31 |
| 2005-06 | Trabzonspor | 28 | 22 |
| 2006-present | Zenit Saint Petersburg | 5 | 4 |
He has 23 caps and 9 goals for Turkey.
[edit] External link
[edit] References
| FC Zenit Saint Petersburg - Current Squad |
|---|
|
1 Čontofalský | 2 Radimov | 3 Škrtel | 4 Križanac | 5 Kim | 7 Domínguez | 8 Pogrebnyak | 9 Tekke | 10 Arshavin | 11 Šírl | 14 Hagen | 15 Spivak | 16 Malafeyev | 17 Lee | 18 Zyryanov | 22 Anyukov | 25 Ricksen | 27 Denisov | 44 Tymoschuk | 87 Maksimov | 88 Horshkov | Manager: Advocaat |
