Halil Altıntop

Halil Altıntop — Biography

Halil Altıntop is a Turkish striker born and raised in Germany, who began his football life alongside his identical twin Hamit Altıntop. With 20 goals in the 2005-06 Bundesliga season for Kaiserslautern he finished among the top scorers, behind Miroslav Klose. He retired as a player in 2018 and then worked in coaching at Bayern Munich's youth set-up, leaving that post in July 2024.

He started out in Gelsenkirchen's amateur sides and at SG Wattenscheid 09. In 2003 he moved to Kaiserslautern; after a first season as Klose's understudy he broke through in 2005-06. That took him in 2006 to his brother's club Schalke 04, but goals dried up there and he left for Eintracht Frankfurt in early 2010. After Frankfurt's relegation he joined Trabzonspor (2011-2013), scoring against Inter in the Champions League and playing in a Turkish Cup final. In 2013 he moved to Augsburg, where he became the Turkish player with the most Bundesliga appearances, before spells at Slavia Prague and Kaiserslautern.

He turned down an approach from the German national team and chose Turkey, making his senior debut on March 30, 2005, against Georgia and scoring in the EURO 2008 qualifiers. After retirement he joined Markus Weinzierl's staff at Stuttgart, coached TSV Schwaben Augsburg, and at Bayern became U16 assistant, U17 head coach and sporting director of the Bayern Campus.