Samet Yeşil Samed Yeşil

Samet Yeşil — Biography

Samed Yeşil is a German footballer of Turkish descent who was one of German youth football's brightest young strikers, went as far as Liverpool, and later kept scoring in the lower leagues. In 2011 he was runner-up in Europe and third in the world with Germany's under-17s, and he was top scorer at the European Championship and won the Silver Shoe at the World Cup.

Born in Düsseldorf and raised in Krefeld, he joined Bayer Leverkusen's academy at eleven and was top scorer of the under-19 league with 19 goals in 23 matches. He made his Bundesliga debut against Hertha Berlin on 14 April 2012. That summer he joined Liverpool for a reported £1 million after Brendan Rodgers took an interest, and on 26 September 2012 he started a League Cup tie against West Bromwich Albion. Two serious injuries kept him out of the main squad and he was released in the summer of 2016. On loan at Luzern he scored his first professional goal against FC Zürich; in 2017 he moved to Panionios and scored against AEK and in the Europa League qualifiers against Gorica. Uerdingen, Ankara Demirspor and Homberg followed. In 2021 he worked in a factory alongside football. He scored 44 goals in 27 matches for Marathon Krefeld and 95 league goals for ATS Krefeld in 2024-25.

He played for Germany's youth sides from under-16 to under-19. Described as eligible for both the German and Turkish senior national teams, he had not yet made a choice.