Hakan Yakin
Personal information
Full name Hakan Yakin
Date of birth (1977-02-22) 22 February 1977 (age 47)
Place of birth Basel, Switzerland
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Second Striker
Attacking Midfielder
Team information
Current team
Lucerne
Number 10
Youth career
1984–1994 Concordia Basel
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1995–1997 Basel 68 (13)
1997-1998 Grasshoppers 11 (1)
1998-1999St. Gallen (loan) 35 (8)
1999–2001 Grasshoppers 54 (22)
2001–2003 Basel 67 (28)
2003 Paris Saint-Germain 0 (0)
2004 Basel 6 (3)
2004-2005 Stuttgart 9 (0)
2004 -2005Galatasaray (loan) 2 (0)
2005–2008 Young Boys 83 (40)
2008–2009 Al-Gharafa 15 (5)
2009– Luzern 73 (26)
International career
Switzerland U-19 6 (4)
Switzerland U-20 3 (5)
Switzerland U-21 24 (12)
2000–2011 Switzerland 87 (20)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 19 November 2011
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 9. Februar 2011

Hakan Yakin (Turkish: Hakan Yakın; born 22 February 1977 in Basel) is a Swiss footballer. He currently plays for Swiss Super League club FC Luzern. He was member of the Swiss national team for eleven years.

He anouced his retirement from the Swiss national team on 4 October 2011.[1][2]

Personal life

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Hakan was born in Basel, Switzerland to Turkish parents. He grew up and went to school in suburban Münchenstein, Basel-Landschaft, just outside of Basel and close to the borders of France and Germany. He is the elder brother of international football player Murat Yakin (former member of the Swiss national football team), who is currently manager of the Swiss Swiss Super League club FC Luzern. His elder half-brother Ertan Irizik is also a former football professional. His surname is based on the Turkish word Yakın [3][4][5] (meaning close, adjacent[6]), however as he is a Swiss resident and citizen, the name which he uses is Yakin.

Club career

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As a child Yakin played in the youth teams of his local side FC Concordia Basel. He signed his first professional contract with hometown club FC Basel in 1995. After two and a half years he transfered to Grasshopper-Club Zürich but could not set himself through. Therefore he was loaned to FC St. Gallen for the second half of the 1997-98 season. The loan was prolonged for a further six months, then Yakin returned to the Grasshoppers.

During January 2001 he transfered back to Basel. At the end of the 2001–02 season Yakin won the national Double with Basel and a year later won the Swiss Cup again. He recalls the 2002–03 Champions League Group B match on 12 November 2002 against Liverpool in St. Jakob-Park as the "match of his life". The game was drawn 3:3 and Yakin gave all three assists as Basel cruised to a 3:0 half time lead as they qualified, one point above Liverpool, for the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League second group stage.[7]

His career was then overshadowed by some trouble regarding his club transfers, as his engagements outside Switzerland (Paris Saint-Germain,[8][9] VfB Stuttgart,[10] and Galatasaray[11]) were not accompanied by luck. In 2005–06, Yakin returned to Switzerland, joining BSC Young Boys.[12]

Honours and Titels

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Basel

Galatasaray

Young Boys

Individual

  • Player of the Year: 2003, 2008
  • Swiss League top goal scorer: 2008, 24 goals

References

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  1. ^ "Hakan Yakin beendet Nationalmannschafts-Karriere". FC Luzern homepage. 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-04. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) (in German)
  2. ^ "Hakan Yakin calls time on Switzerland". eufa.com. 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-06. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ Muhammet Altıntaş: Hakan`ı kaçırmayın (in Turkish)
  4. ^ Hurriyetport.com: Milli Futbolcu Hakan Yakın'a Vjosa Jusufi ikizler için babalık testi davası açtı! (in Turkish)
  5. ^ http://www.habervitrini.com/haber.asp?id=346326
  6. ^ http://online.ectaco.co.uk/main.jsp?do=e-services-dictionaries-word_translate1&status=translate&lang1=20&lang2=en&source_id=3668175&refid=-1
  7. ^ Widmer, Benedikt; Mugglin, David (2011). Das Spiel meines Lebens. rotweiss Verlag GmbH, Basel. ISBN 978-3-7245-1785-6. (in German)
  8. ^ "PSG complete Yakin swoop". UEFA.com. 2003-07-31. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
  9. ^ "Basel boosted by Yakin return". UEFA.com. 2003-08-30. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
  10. ^ "Yakin follows Streller to Stuttgart". UEFA.com. 2004-02-02. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
  11. ^ "Galatasaray give Yakin a go". UEFA.com. 2005-01-26. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
  12. ^ "Young Boys welcome Yakin". UEFA.com. 2005-06-10. Archived from the original on 2008-05-14. Retrieved 2008-04-12.