Erol Erdal Alkan

Erol Erdal Alkan — Biography

Erol Erdal Alkan (born 16 February 1994 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch-Turkish footballer who was born and raised in the Netherlands. Most sources describe the 1.90 m player as a centre-back; one records him as a midfielder.

Records place him at the Turkish clubs Elazığspor and Hatayspor, as well as at Finn Harps and the Belgian side FC Esperanza Pelt. He is credited with representing Turkey at youth international level.

His call-up to the senior Turkey squad under Mircea Lucescu in November 2017 set off a wide debate in the Turkish media, with the selection process questioned for days; the sports writer Atilla Türker claimed that Lucescu had not travelled to the Netherlands to watch him. Alkan said at the time that he had read what was written about him and hoped to be called up again, and in a 2020 interview stated "My country is Turkey". The episode continued to be revisited in the press in later years.