Muhammed Ildiz

Muhammed Ildiz — Biography

Muhammed Ildiz is a Vienna-born midfielder of Turkish descent who played for Austria's youth teams. He spent the larger part of his football life at Rapid Wien, then moved on to Germany and Türkiye. His career took in a spell with Gaziantepspor in the Süper Lig and ended at Elazığspor, and he is now retired.

Ildiz started in the youth system of SC Red Star Penzing in 1999 and joined Rapid Wien in 2001. He won the Austrian under-19 title with Rapid in 2007-08, and moved up to the reserve side in the third tier the following season. His first-team debut came in December 2009 against Celtic. In 2010-11 he was loaned to FC Wacker Innsbruck, newly promoted to the Bundesliga; he made his league debut against LASK in 2010 and scored his first Bundesliga goal against Wiener Neustadt in 2011, during a second loan. In early 2013 he joined 1. FC Nürnberg, but repeated injuries limited him to five short appearances and the contract was ended by mutual consent. In early 2014 he signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with Gaziantepspor and played in the Süper Lig. His next club was Elazığspor: he was one of 22 players the club registered on the last day of the January 2019 window, and his contract was terminated that May.

Despite his Turkish roots he played for Austria's U17, U18 and U19 teams, winning the Toto Gençlik Cup with the U17s in 2007. His brother Ahmed is also a footballer.