Hakan Şükür

Hakan Şükür — Biography

Hakan Şükür was born on 1 September 1971 in Adapazarı. He began his football career with his hometown club Sakaryaspor in 1987 before joining Bursaspor and then, in 1992, Galatasaray, where he played across three separate spells interspersed with stints at Italy's Torino, Inter and Parma and England's Blackburn Rovers. With Galatasaray he won 14 trophies and was crowned the Süper Lig's top scorer three times; nicknamed the "Bull of the Bosphorus," he remains the league's all-time leading scorer with 249 goals.

Turkey's all-time top scorer with 51 goals in 112 caps, he scored the fastest goal in World Cup history during the 2002 third-place match, helping his country to a bronze medal, and retired from playing in 2008. In 2011 he was elected as an Istanbul MP for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), resigning from the party in December 2013 to continue as an independent legislator.

Wanted in Turkey since 2016 over his alleged ties to the Gülen movement, he has lived in the United States since then, and in 2017 a government decree revoked all medals previously awarded to him. A lawsuit accusing him of insulting President Erdoğan remained active in 2026, and in July of that year Galatasaray announced it had revoked his club membership.