![\"Born](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/super-lig-1760010638-179929.png\" "\\"Born")
<\/p>\n60 players and counting\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n \u00a9TM\/IMAGO\n <\/p>\n
The wave of migration that began with the labour agreement signed between Turkey and Germany in 1961 was not limited to factory workers. Today, their children and grandchildren, despite being born in Germany,<\/a> take to the field wearing the Turkey national team jersey<\/a>. We have compiled a list of footballers who were born in Germany but chose to play for the Turkish national team. To date, more than 60 footballers have taken to the field for Turkey, despite being born in different cities in Germany. On the list of approximately 63 footballers, the name that has worn the famous red jersey the most is Hakan \u00c7alhano\u011flu,<\/a> born in Mannheim. He is followed by Hamit Alt\u0131ntop<\/a>, born in Gelsenkirchen, and Og\u00fcn Temizkano\u011flu<\/a>, one of the unforgettable defenders of the 1990s.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00c7alhano\u011flu, despite growing up in Germany, became one of the most powerful figures who dedicated his heart to Turkey. The experienced footballer, who has worn the national jersey 99 times, is now emerging as the captain of Turkey. Alt\u0131ntop played 82 times for his country and was one of the few Turkish players to play for major European teams, both Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. His brother Halil Alt\u0131ntop<\/a> also managed to play for Turkey 38 times. Temizkano\u011flu, meanwhile, wore the Turkish jersey in 76 matches, leaving a lasting impression with his successful performances.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The contribution of German-born footballers to the national team began in the 1990s. In those years, Y\u0131ld\u0131ray Ba\u015ft\u00fcrk<\/a>, Tayfur Havut\u00e7u<\/a>, Tayfun Korkut<\/a>, and \u00dcmit Davala<\/a> were all raised in Germany and played for major Turkish clubs, taking on important roles. In the legendary squad that reached the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup, Havut\u00e7u was also present alongside Davala and Ba\u015ft\u00fcrk. This generation went down in history as the first major wave of players born in Germany who played for Turkey.<\/p>\n From the mid-2000s onwards, Berlin-born Hakan Balta<\/a> played for Galatasaray for many years and earned 50 caps. L\u00fcdencheid-born Nuri \u015eahin<\/a> came through the Borussia Dortmund youth system and earned 52 caps for Turkey. Cenk Tosun<\/a>, born in Wetzlar, who has played 53 times for his country, was born and raised in Germany, playing for Eintracht Frankfurt before returning to Turkey to star for Be\u015fikta\u015f. The striker then transferred to Premier League side Everton. Born in Gelsenkirchen, Kaan Ayhan<\/a> played for Germany’s youth national teams before choosing to represent Turkey, earning 71 caps for the senior national team.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n During the same period, G\u00f6khan T\u00f6re<\/a>, \u00d6mer Toprak<\/a>, Olcay \u015eahan<\/a>, Yunus Mall\u0131<\/a>, Serdar Dursun<\/a> and Tolga Ci\u011ferci<\/a>, who were also born in Germany, played for Turkey. In subsequent years, Cologne-born Salih \u00d6zcan<\/a> rose through the ranks with Dortmund and joined the Turkish national team. Alongside him, Stuttgart-born Kenan Karaman<\/a> also fought for Turkey in the attacking line. One of the most notable names of this generation was the young star Kenan Y\u0131ld\u0131z<\/a>, who plys his trade at Juventus. With a market value of \u20ac75 million, Y\u0131ld\u0131z quickly became one of Turkey’s greatest attacking weapons. Similarly, young Frankfurt attacking midfielder Can Uzun<\/a> also made it onto this list by choosing Turkey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"60 players and counting\u00a0 \u00a9TM\/IMAGO The wave of migration that began with the labour agreement signed between Turkey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824,162527,162530,162529,13882,162528,461],"class_list":{"0":"post-493438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-hakan-calhanoglu","12":"tag-halil-altintop","13":"tag-hamit-altintop","14":"tag-kenan-yildiz","15":"tag-ogun-temizkanoglu","16":"tag-turkey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115360932456914743","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"German-born](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/german-born-turkish-national-team-1760090935-180023.png\" "\\"German-born")
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