Akın Vardar

Akın Vardar — Biography

Akın Vardar was born on 2 April 1978 in the Kuyucak district of Aydın. He began playing football in the youth ranks of his hometown club Aydınspor, turned professional in 1997 and joined the first team, making his official debut on 28 December 1997 in a Third League match against Turgutluspor. He quickly established himself as the club's first-choice goalkeeper and made 140 appearances for Aydınspor from the 1999-2000 season until the winter break of 2002-03.

He transferred to Sivasspor during that winter break, though he never became an undisputed first-choice keeper there and instead shared goalkeeping duties over the following years while taking part in the club's European campaigns. In the 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup he was sent off in the 31st minute against Grbalj, the first red card in Sivasspor's history in the competition; in the 2009 UEFA Champions League he played a significant part in a 3-1 win over Anderlecht, and in a 2-0 defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk he could not keep out two penalties. He deputised for the injured Michael Petkovic in 15 matches in 2007-08, shared the position with him more often in 2009-10, and made five appearances in 2010-11 while competing with Sead Ramović and Alişan Şeker for the jersey.

During the 2010-11 winter transfer window he moved to lower-league Karşıyaka, then to Konya Şekerspor at the end of the season; after spells at two further lower-league clubs he retired from football in 2013.