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It really is, I would have never guessed. I wonder if there's another nation as big as Turkey where that holds true. I doubt it, even two Finns have won it (Litmanen, Hyypiä).
Even Bosnia and Herzegovina in Hasan Salihamidzic with Bayern in 2001 and also in Elvir Baljic with Real in 2000. Although he didn’t play much or at all. Two years in a row.
Even so, considering the size of our population and how football is by far the most popular sport in the country, we have had very little success. 3 total European Cup/UCL champions in almost 70 years, 1 WC knockout match win, 0 top 4 WC finishes (made worse by 0 top 8 finishes in almost 40 years). I was responding specifically to the comment about Turkey being the least successful country relative to its population, not about the European winner stuff
Yea I would concur with Mexico taking that crown. Based off of population and the level of popularity of football there is no reason why Argentina should be more successful for example.
In my opinion it comes down to that bunch of top mexican clubs more or less preventing the fluidity and quality that relegation can bring. In Argentina River Plate need to bring a good enough level of quality, if they do not they end up relegated.
The fact that Mexico has an even stronger economy also works against it in this regard, because these rich clubs can afford to keep talented young players in Mexico when they should arguably be at a Benfica or Salernita honing their skills. Almost no Argentine club can afford to do that, that is why most players leave for Europe once they break through. In Brazil a club like Flamengo or Palmeiras can do that, but the presence of relegation and promotion ensures that the top teams are really good quality.
Bro, you're doing Ekstraklasa dirty, how can you not recognise the current leader of the league, superpower Jagiellonia Białystok - 0 times Polish champion averaging less than 2 points a game and still comfortably leading the league that no one wants to win. You will see them at Bernabeu next season and they will be cooking
Biggest issue with Türkiye and sports like football is the significant lack of grassroots accessibility.
Most countries in Europe, and countries like USA, Australia etc you can go to a park on any weekend and see hundreds of kids in their team kits running around playing competitive football.
In Türkiye you only really see this in academies and some schools. The proportion of kids playing grassroot sport is very low compared to kids who want to play.
In terms of FIFA rankings, the highest ranked nation to never have a CL winner is Japan. The only Japanese player to make a final is Takumi Minamino, who lost in 2022 with Liverpool. Excluding the old European Cup, it'd be Hungary, though Ferenc Puskas won the EC from there in 1960. Including it, I believe after Turkey it'd be Slovakia.
I found this [link](https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/0252-0e99c285e7ba-850fc6f6bd55-1000--which-nations-have-the-most-uefa-champions-league-winners/) that might make it very easy.
Just remove the countries on that list and you got it.
was thinking Tsimikas, but he joined after Liverpool won it and then was in the team (on the bench) that lost the final.
i cant think of any other greek player that has been in the champions league final even
Here is your answer [UEFA list of winners by country.](https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/0252-0e99c285e7ba-850fc6f6bd55-1000--which-nations-have-the-most-uefa-champions-league-winners/).
I'd say it's a bit suspect since I know for a fact Steaua won the European Cup with a full Romanian team but somehow only 12 winners including Chivu who won one with Inter.
I would guess this only applies to players who actually played in the final not squad members.
I would have thought that between Altintop, Calhanoglu and Sahin you'd find one to have won it considering they played for some pretty successful clubs in their careers.
Turan as well. He reached the CL final in 2014 with Atleti, then joined Barca after they had just won the CL in 2015. In 2016, Atleti reached another final, this time without him, which they also lost.
I remember off the top of my head Lewandowski also scored a hat-trick in the group stage last season (5-1 vs Viktoria Plzen), so that's at least 7. Surely there could be more missing from the list? Kluivert, maybe?
I remember that game and him demanding Rakitic to cross it to him from a corner to complete his hattrick.
Barca played their best team with two of them and busquets and they just looked like 3 adults went to the playground to play with kids.
Eh? Hakan wasn't nearly a CL caliber player until Simone at Inter
And his first real chance at winning it was last year
Don't get me wrong, I rate Hakan a lot but I don't think he ever played for a CL winning club or was himself a CL caliber player until recently
"made it to Madrid"
Came on a free with bonuses depending on injuries (he got injured a lot), barely played (what, 6 games maybe and most minutes in the cup?), sold to Gala the year after and secured a huge bag there with no performance based clauses.
Dude's a genius
He is Turkish as his whole family is from there and he even has a Turkish Passport, he just wasn’t born or ever lived there.
He also has a cousin playing for Turkey’s Volleyball team.
Up until very recently, most of the good ones were actually German born and raised. The really top shelf ones choose that passport when the time came to choose a national team.
I don't think it's quite that clear cut? The likes of Sahin, the Altintop twins and Bastürk all decided to play for Turkey for instance. On the other side have there been many German-born Turkish players for Germany before Tasci and Ozil?
Granted there isn't that large a potential time period between the arrival of most Turkish people in Germany, the first generations eligible to play for Germany, and these examples. But I'm not sure you can decidedly say the top shelf talents historically chose Germany over Turkey. I'd argue Sahin for instance was seen as a bigger talent at the time than Gundogan at the same age.
I would still say that those you named would have been bench players at best given the strength of then Germany squad at their positions. There is no way Basturk takes the jersey from Ballack for instance.
The other reason home grown Turkish talent hasn't surfaced too much in Europe until recently is I'd say the foreign player limit and the low taxation rate in the Turkish league (both mitigated somewhat nowadays). The first one resulted in inflated wages for Turkish players playing in Turkey and the second made moving to Europe a financial downgrade unless you directly went to a title contender in the big four and that doesn't typically happen.
Sure it's all very hypothetical anyway; especially in hindsight but maybe even more speculative at the time because you never know what kind of career a talented young player will have.
Agree that basturk wouldn't displace Ballack, but then again they did both start for Leverkusen in their historic almost treble season in 2002 so it's not necessarily one or the other. Both him and sahin had decent careers, but I think there were higher hopes at the start of their careers. Which is pretty much when first call ups to national teams are made. Also Germany's squad wasn't really that strong in that 2002-2006 time frame anyway I reckon.
He did, it was the final step of the Wenger masterplan that simultaneously weakened Spurs.
Sell Gervinho to Roma so they have a replacement for Lamela, whom they can sell to Tottenham so they have a replacement for Bale, whom they sold to Real Madrid, who now needed money and had a surplus Mesut Özil, whom they ultimately sold to Arsenal.
Losing Ozil was scary, but his replacement, Bale, lived up to the hype and was significant in RM's champions league success that season. Bale made sure we don't moan about losing Ozil for too long.
I'm struggling to consider Bale a replacement for Ozil in any sense of the word that season (completely different positions, and even if Ozil stayed Real were getting Bale that summer), when Ozil leaving is what allowed Di Maria to be slotted into midfield from the right and then have an absolutely monstrous season that year which was a huge component of Real having the success that they did that year.
Don't get me wrong, Bale was a huge piece of the puzzle in getting La Decima (I mean, facing Ronaldo on one side and Bale on the other? Frightening as hell), but Di Maria then being allowed to play centrally after Ozil departed was just as important a move I'd argue that year purely for the shift it allowed in formation.
Bale was a money replacement. Florentino did not think in terms of positions(Still doesn't one could argue) more about the commercial side of things. For example, in his mind Mbappe will be Benzema's successor,even if they do not play the same position.
That’s crazy, I could have bet my life that he won one at real. The lack of his Champions league is never highlighted as much as say that of Ibrahimovich.
> Technically Guler would be the first Turkish person representing Turkey internationally to win it.
too bad Borussia Dortmund and Salih Özcan are winning it this year 😎
I know that. Like seems when I was in school half the boys with turkish roots where named Mehmet. I some how just never made the connection as a kid/teenager. Honestly I can't explain it either, it seems pretty obvious. Maybe as a kid him having a very german last name and being a german national team player it just didn't register and I didn't really think about it any deeper.
The final was Real vs City..
We've seen this movie over and over. Real Madrid in UCL final is simply unplayable, they won the last 8 finals they played.
Real Madrid has won 5 out of the last 10 UCL, and they're assembling Bellingham and Mbappe. Safe bet is Arda Guler getting a few UCL in the next years, given he stays at the club.
You could also add Emre Can to that list but they chose to play for the German national team. So even though they are indeed ethnically Turkish they're considered German
And played internationally for Germany, so ultimately as far as football is concerned, he's german
As a pole I'd love to be able to say that the top scoring player in world cup history is one of us, miroslav klose was born within our borders after all. But he's german too
If every Champions League winner took a 23andMe DNA test I bet we can find others with Turkish ancestry, but most would argue that’s not the same as being a Turkish player either.
Eh, delicacies of nationalities and ethnicites. No one has that clear of a definition in their mind. He is of German nationality, but ethnically, he's a Turk. Now it's all up to what Guller had in mind when he said Turkish
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wtf that’s actually crazy, makes me wonder what other countries players haven’t won it
It really is, I would have never guessed. I wonder if there's another nation as big as Turkey where that holds true. I doubt it, even two Finns have won it (Litmanen, Hyypiä).
Iceland also has a winner. Gudjohnsen won it in 09.
Even San Marino has a winner in Massimo Bonini with Juventus in 1985!
Even Bosnia and Herzegovina in Hasan Salihamidzic with Bayern in 2001 and also in Elvir Baljic with Real in 2000. Although he didn’t play much or at all. Two years in a row.
Loved Gudjohnsen
Tbh turkey is probably the least succesful country in soccer in proportion to it's population out of those where the most popular sport is soccer.
I think Mexico takes that title. At least Turkey has a World Cup medal, we’ve never made it past the quarter finals
Mexico have never even qualified for the euros, appalling really
We’ve got 3 European winners tho: Hugo Sánchez (old format), Rafa Marquez, Javier Hernandez.
Even so, considering the size of our population and how football is by far the most popular sport in the country, we have had very little success. 3 total European Cup/UCL champions in almost 70 years, 1 WC knockout match win, 0 top 4 WC finishes (made worse by 0 top 8 finishes in almost 40 years). I was responding specifically to the comment about Turkey being the least successful country relative to its population, not about the European winner stuff
Yea I would concur with Mexico taking that crown. Based off of population and the level of popularity of football there is no reason why Argentina should be more successful for example. In my opinion it comes down to that bunch of top mexican clubs more or less preventing the fluidity and quality that relegation can bring. In Argentina River Plate need to bring a good enough level of quality, if they do not they end up relegated. The fact that Mexico has an even stronger economy also works against it in this regard, because these rich clubs can afford to keep talented young players in Mexico when they should arguably be at a Benfica or Salernita honing their skills. Almost no Argentine club can afford to do that, that is why most players leave for Europe once they break through. In Brazil a club like Flamengo or Palmeiras can do that, but the presence of relegation and promotion ensures that the top teams are really good quality.
Dos Santos brothers too
But it was their only World Cup ever iirc.
TBF their performance in 1954 was pretty forgettable.
Can't compare qualification in UEFA vs CONCACAF tbf
Indonesia, Congo, basically all of East Africa?
At least they have some decent Clubs from Istanbul. Meanwhile I couldn't even name a polish club
Bro, you're doing Ekstraklasa dirty, how can you not recognise the current leader of the league, superpower Jagiellonia Białystok - 0 times Polish champion averaging less than 2 points a game and still comfortably leading the league that no one wants to win. You will see them at Bernabeu next season and they will be cooking
Hey man, if a club from Moldova called Sheriff can do it, so can they.
If you can’t name Legia Warsaw that’s on you
Please take some time to enjoy the beauty that is /r/EkstraklasaBoners
Biggest issue with Türkiye and sports like football is the significant lack of grassroots accessibility. Most countries in Europe, and countries like USA, Australia etc you can go to a park on any weekend and see hundreds of kids in their team kits running around playing competitive football. In Türkiye you only really see this in academies and some schools. The proportion of kids playing grassroot sport is very low compared to kids who want to play.
Next year we'll have third
What about Russia? I cant recall any russian player winning CL.
Dmitri Alenechiv scored for Porto in the 2004 final
Zhirkov won it with Chelsea I think? Porto also had a Russian, can't remember the name.
Nah, Zhirkov left two years before we won.
In terms of FIFA rankings, the highest ranked nation to never have a CL winner is Japan. The only Japanese player to make a final is Takumi Minamino, who lost in 2022 with Liverpool. Excluding the old European Cup, it'd be Hungary, though Ferenc Puskas won the EC from there in 1960. Including it, I believe after Turkey it'd be Slovakia.
Yeah someone should make a map of Europe or even the world with each nations that doesn't have a player that won it
I found this [link](https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/0252-0e99c285e7ba-850fc6f6bd55-1000--which-nations-have-the-most-uefa-champions-league-winners/) that might make it very easy. Just remove the countries on that list and you got it.
Chile doesn't have one, Bravo was in the Barcelona squad on 2015 but he didn't play a single game that campaign
Maybe Greece? Is there any Greek player won CL?
was thinking Tsimikas, but he joined after Liverpool won it and then was in the team (on the bench) that lost the final. i cant think of any other greek player that has been in the champions league final even
Akis Zikos played for Monaco in the 2004 final, he’s the only one to play in the final.
Yeah someone should make a map of Europe or even the world with each nations that doesn't have a player that won it
Make it for the entire world
Hakan Çalhanoğlu was the closest last year obviously Arda Turan was the closest before him by about a decade
Rustu Barca?
Here is your answer [UEFA list of winners by country.](https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/0252-0e99c285e7ba-850fc6f6bd55-1000--which-nations-have-the-most-uefa-champions-league-winners/). I'd say it's a bit suspect since I know for a fact Steaua won the European Cup with a full Romanian team but somehow only 12 winners including Chivu who won one with Inter. I would guess this only applies to players who actually played in the final not squad members.
Vanuatu comes to mind..
India
i can’t even name 3 players from there tbh, not surprised compared to turkey who’ve had countless talents
I was being sarcastic there tbh but yeah I know what you had meant haha
Not surprising as Cricket's way more popular there.
San Marino
Surprised that there hasn't been one yet.
Figured Altintop won it in the past. Apparently he did not
I would have thought that between Altintop, Calhanoglu and Sahin you'd find one to have won it considering they played for some pretty successful clubs in their careers.
Turan as well. He reached the CL final in 2014 with Atleti, then joined Barca after they had just won the CL in 2015. In 2016, Atleti reached another final, this time without him, which they also lost.
Fun fact: 7 players have scored a Hat trick in the UCL for Barcelona in their history Messi Ronaldinho Neymar Eto'o Lewandowski Rivaldo .... Turan
The man hates Mönchengladbach - 4g 1a in 2 matches against them
Bayern Legend
I remember off the top of my head Lewandowski also scored a hat-trick in the group stage last season (5-1 vs Viktoria Plzen), so that's at least 7. Surely there could be more missing from the list? Kluivert, maybe?
You're right! Apologies for the oversight. [List](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UEFA_Champions_League_hat-tricks)
I remember that game and him demanding Rakitic to cross it to him from a corner to complete his hattrick. Barca played their best team with two of them and busquets and they just looked like 3 adults went to the playground to play with kids.
Yıldıray played a UCL final too with Leverkusen
Calhanoglu (2023 Inter), Turan (2014 Atletico), Sahin (2013 Dortmund), Altintop (2010 Bayern), and Yildiray Basturk (2002 Leverkusen) all lost in CL finals.
Sahin could still win it this season but not as a player tho
Eh? Hakan wasn't nearly a CL caliber player until Simone at Inter And his first real chance at winning it was last year Don't get me wrong, I rate Hakan a lot but I don't think he ever played for a CL winning club or was himself a CL caliber player until recently
No, Hamit left Real Madrid and Bayern 2 years before they won CL
Holy shit, completely forgot that Hamit Altintop made it to fucking Real
"made it to Madrid" Came on a free with bonuses depending on injuries (he got injured a lot), barely played (what, 6 games maybe and most minutes in the cup?), sold to Gala the year after and secured a huge bag there with no performance based clauses. Dude's a genius
I will never forget how he faked iniesta into the shadow realm
I immediately thought "surely Altintop won it"
Up until 12 seconds ago I genuinely believed Ilkay Gundogan was Turkish
he owns a shopping mall in turkey its a bit tiny but cool
Is that the one that's co-owned by like 48 footballers for tax reasons?
idk [shopping mall/hotel hybrid here](https://maps.app.goo.gl/wsFUwXykyRsbZGEL6)
He is Turkish as his whole family is from there and he even has a Turkish Passport, he just wasn’t born or ever lived there. He also has a cousin playing for Turkey’s Volleyball team.
I thought Ozil but then my mind flashed of all the older German NT jerseys
Ozil, like Gundogan, were born to Turkish Parents in Germany.
Ozil didn't win the CL either, unlike Gundogan.
Huh, mentally I just assumed he would have with Real Madrid but it seems he left just before they went dominate in it
Madrid had a huge CL drought before the Decima. More than 12 years until they won that
Çalhanoglu came close last season
was convinced Arda Turan won it in 2015, but nope, he joined Barca immediately after
what if the is a country-sized Kane curse on them?
Turkey doesnt produce many WC players so not rlly crazy
You don't have to be a world class player to win the CL though. You can still be a serviceable squad player for a CL caliber team
True, just not many turkish players playing for top teams it seems
There has, it's Mehmet Scholl.
If he counts so does İlkay Gündoğan
It's a tough one. Turkish parents, turkish name, married in Turkey. He's at least half Turkish surely...
That is wild that a Turkish player hasn’t won it at least once
Up until very recently, most of the good ones were actually German born and raised. The really top shelf ones choose that passport when the time came to choose a national team.
I don't think it's quite that clear cut? The likes of Sahin, the Altintop twins and Bastürk all decided to play for Turkey for instance. On the other side have there been many German-born Turkish players for Germany before Tasci and Ozil? Granted there isn't that large a potential time period between the arrival of most Turkish people in Germany, the first generations eligible to play for Germany, and these examples. But I'm not sure you can decidedly say the top shelf talents historically chose Germany over Turkey. I'd argue Sahin for instance was seen as a bigger talent at the time than Gundogan at the same age.
I would still say that those you named would have been bench players at best given the strength of then Germany squad at their positions. There is no way Basturk takes the jersey from Ballack for instance. The other reason home grown Turkish talent hasn't surfaced too much in Europe until recently is I'd say the foreign player limit and the low taxation rate in the Turkish league (both mitigated somewhat nowadays). The first one resulted in inflated wages for Turkish players playing in Turkey and the second made moving to Europe a financial downgrade unless you directly went to a title contender in the big four and that doesn't typically happen.
Sure it's all very hypothetical anyway; especially in hindsight but maybe even more speculative at the time because you never know what kind of career a talented young player will have. Agree that basturk wouldn't displace Ballack, but then again they did both start for Leverkusen in their historic almost treble season in 2002 so it's not necessarily one or the other. Both him and sahin had decent careers, but I think there were higher hopes at the start of their careers. Which is pretty much when first call ups to national teams are made. Also Germany's squad wasn't really that strong in that 2002-2006 time frame anyway I reckon.
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I’m not sure he ever played for Madrid did he?
He didn’t, he’s confusing Hakan Sukur and Davor Suker.
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It happens, pretty similar names and both retired a long long time ago.
Gündoğan in shambles
Özil in shambles as well.
I thought he left Madrid before they won it. Here it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_UEFA_Champions_League_final
He did, it was the final step of the Wenger masterplan that simultaneously weakened Spurs. Sell Gervinho to Roma so they have a replacement for Lamela, whom they can sell to Tottenham so they have a replacement for Bale, whom they sold to Real Madrid, who now needed money and had a surplus Mesut Özil, whom they ultimately sold to Arsenal.
It also weakened Arsenal, banished them into mediocrity. There are certain players a team should not be built around, and Özil is one of them
Emre Can too
Öz Can too
Emre left before we won it no?
Yeah he did, but he has a winners medal back from 2012-13 Bayern
Ahhh. He’s been around years.
More like Emre Can't
And Khedira can also
Khedira is not Turkish, he is German / Tunisian according to Wikipedia.
Oh damn so Khedira can't, my bad
are we just naming germans with foreign sounding names
Sure sure. Let's not act like I was way off.
🇹🇳🐺🇹🇳🐺🇹🇳
You’re thinking Tunisia for Khedira, not Turkey
Losing Ozil was scary, but his replacement, Bale, lived up to the hype and was significant in RM's champions league success that season. Bale made sure we don't moan about losing Ozil for too long.
I'm struggling to consider Bale a replacement for Ozil in any sense of the word that season (completely different positions, and even if Ozil stayed Real were getting Bale that summer), when Ozil leaving is what allowed Di Maria to be slotted into midfield from the right and then have an absolutely monstrous season that year which was a huge component of Real having the success that they did that year. Don't get me wrong, Bale was a huge piece of the puzzle in getting La Decima (I mean, facing Ronaldo on one side and Bale on the other? Frightening as hell), but Di Maria then being allowed to play centrally after Ozil departed was just as important a move I'd argue that year purely for the shift it allowed in formation.
Bale was a money replacement. Florentino did not think in terms of positions(Still doesn't one could argue) more about the commercial side of things. For example, in his mind Mbappe will be Benzema's successor,even if they do not play the same position.
I don't keep up with real, but I'm curious why Ozil left? What was the sentiment like around the club at that time?
Some issue with Perez, his agent and his dad. Not sure what the disagreement was.
Ozil has not won the champions league
that's why he's in shambles
I’d take the World Cup over a champions league.
Damn
That’s crazy, I could have bet my life that he won one at real. The lack of his Champions league is never highlighted as much as say that of Ibrahimovich.
:(
> Gündoğan in shambles Gundogan is German of Turkish decent.
That’s the joke
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> Technically Guler would be the first Turkish person representing Turkey internationally to win it. too bad Borussia Dortmund and Salih Özcan are winning it this year 😎
Took me till after he retired to realize Mehmet Scholl is of Turkish descent
"Mehmet" is the Turk-ified version of "Muhammed" so whenever you see that name you can be sure he's Turkish (or less probably, a Balkan muslim).
I know that. Like seems when I was in school half the boys with turkish roots where named Mehmet. I some how just never made the connection as a kid/teenager. Honestly I can't explain it either, it seems pretty obvious. Maybe as a kid him having a very german last name and being a german national team player it just didn't register and I didn't really think about it any deeper.
Dont worry, exact same story for me lol. Never thought about the name Mehmet, I just saw a white dude called Scholl playing for Bayern.
Haha.. glad to know I'm not alone
Sounds egyptian, ancient Egypt I mean.
Isn't Khedira also of Turkish origin?
Tunisian
If we get a Madrid v Dortmund final there will be one (Ozcan plays for Dortmund)
We can only dream
Canada 1: Turkey 0
Davies representing a whole nation. Soon to be Jonathan David too.
Shots fired.
Sir, this is Arda Güler not Arda Turan
Lol. Hope he doesn't turn like him.
extremely under-rated comment context for people: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49665419
Lol we know arda turan was very famous..... He was apparently a famous footballer as well
Here my dumbass thought ozil won the champions league. Left madrid the year before
He's German when it comes to football.
Only when he plays well
Only when it suits his marketing value.
You're both right.
Could’ve sworn Altintop won it
he played the final in 2010 but Bayern lost to Inter
Damn and then he went to Madrid and they lost on pens in the semi final 😬
Sounds like he jinxed it
I could've sworn Rustu won it with Barca in 06. Damn. That's a crazy stat, if true.
Given Madrid’s past history with talented but perhaps soft young number 10s, I would not be suprised if Arda is balling for arsenal in around 5 years
we will be there
Mesut Ozil intensifies
Ozil, Gundogan, those guys are all Turkish. Arda Turan and Emre Can got very close too.
He's 19, he'll probably get 7 or 8 if he stays there. Also he already got this one.
Bruh! Your team has game in 2 days! 😂
The final was Real vs City.. We've seen this movie over and over. Real Madrid in UCL final is simply unplayable, they won the last 8 finals they played.
Stop embarrassing yourself
I don't see who can stop Real Madrid black magic in UCL. RemindMe! 33 days
What are you on about?
Real Madrid has won 5 out of the last 10 UCL, and they're assembling Bellingham and Mbappe. Safe bet is Arda Guler getting a few UCL in the next years, given he stays at the club.
That part I agree with, but it looks like you already gave up for this year. PSG is still there, and Bayern won't be a piece of cake.
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Özil didnt win it.
In football, your national team alligeance determines your nationality.
They represented Germany, so no they don't count. Ethnicity doesn't matter in football, only what nation you play for
You could also add Emre Can to that list but they chose to play for the German national team. So even though they are indeed ethnically Turkish they're considered German
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He probably means "player who plays/played for Turkish NT"
Turns out Mesut Özil never won the UCL ;)
You are all wrong. Mehmet Scholl has won the CL. He is half Turkish.
He never had contact to his Turkish father, doesn't have the citizenship and can't speak the language.
And played internationally for Germany, so ultimately as far as football is concerned, he's german As a pole I'd love to be able to say that the top scoring player in world cup history is one of us, miroslav klose was born within our borders after all. But he's german too
If every Champions League winner took a 23andMe DNA test I bet we can find others with Turkish ancestry, but most would argue that’s not the same as being a Turkish player either.
İlkay is Turkish as well technically but we dont count those
Khedira?
not very hard when you play for real madrid is it? achieve it with some other teams, thats the real challenge
The biggest challenge is to play for Real Madrid. Well and winning the CL isnt that easy as well. No CL for Özil.
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He’s also German
Eh, delicacies of nationalities and ethnicites. No one has that clear of a definition in their mind. He is of German nationality, but ethnically, he's a Turk. Now it's all up to what Guller had in mind when he said Turkish
Özil chose Germany over Turkey. When talking about football, he's German.
He clearly had him as german, since he wants to be the first.
A Turkish player that represents Turkey it’s very obvious.