Hakan Yakın

Hakan Yakın — Biography

Hakan Yakın is a former Swiss footballer and manager of Turkish descent, born on 22 February 1977 in Basel. He spent most of his playing career in Switzerland, with brief and largely unsuccessful spells abroad: he left Paris Saint-Germain without making a single appearance, made 11 appearances for Stuttgart (9 in the league, 2 in cup competitions) without scoring, played only 2 matches for Galatasaray, and scored 5 goals in 15 matches for Qatar's Al-Gharafa. His greatest club success came with FC Basel, with whom he won the Swiss league and cup double in 2002, and he was voted Swiss Footballer of the Year in both 2003 and 2008. He ended his playing career at AC Bellinzona after the 2012-13 season.

Capped 87 times over 11 years for Switzerland and scoring 20 international goals, Yakın represented his country at the 2004 and 2008 European Championships and the 2006 and 2010 World Cups. At Euro 2008 he scored all three of Switzerland's goals: the team's only goal in the match against Turkey, assisted by fellow player of Turkish descent Eren Derdiyok, which he chose not to celebrate, and two more against Portugal, a performance that earned him man-of-the-match honours. His older brother, Murat Yakın, was also a Switzerland international and later became a national-team manager.

After retiring as a player, Yakın moved into coaching, first taking charge of FC Schaffhausen in Switzerland before returning to Turkey in 2023 to manage İstanbulspor.