The greatest Turkish footballer is disreputable in his homeland

His name is not unpronounceable, but in Turkey it is publicly unspeakable: Hakan Sükür. Football reporter Alper Bakircigil from the TRT broadcaster had this experience when he commented on the Morocco vs. Canada game during the 2022 World Cup. The Moroccans scored an early goal through Hakim Ziyech. The journalist commented that this could bring back memories of the most important match of the Turkish national team in 2002. Back then, Hakan Sükür scored after just 11 seconds in the game for third place against South Korea; it is still the fastest goal in World Cup history.

Bakircigil was replaced at half-time and a colleague took over. Because Hakan Sükür, Turkey’s most prominent footballer, is now persona non grata – he fell out of favor with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Sükür now lives in the USA

Sükür lives in exile in the USA. An ARD documentary entitled “Hakan Sükür – Football Hero and Public Enemy of Türkiye” sheds light on his fate. For five years, filmmaker Ole Zeisler repeatedly tried to get in touch with Sükür. Then, this year, everything happened quite quickly.

In fact, the interview is a bit of a sensation. Hakan Sükür, who lives in Palo Alto, where Apple has its headquarters, only gave an interview to the New York Times once after leaving Turkey. The fact that Sükür is addressing a German audience is only surprising at first glance: in no other country do more compatriots live outside of Turkey; he can be sure that his message will reach there – and will also be understood.

The concept of height is appropriate here because Sükür is not just one of many popular Turkish footballers. He stands out among them all. He is the most successful striker to ever play for Galatasaray and the same goes for the national team, for whom he scored 51 goals.

Since then, no one has reached the standards he set in Turkish football. These include third place at the World Cup in Japan and South Korea as well as the UEFA Cup victory with Galatasaray against Arsenal FC in 2000, the only European Cup triumph for a Turkish club. At first glance, this doesn’t seem particularly impressive.

But Sükür’s career is a thoroughly Turkish one; he never really gained a foothold abroad – neither at Torino, Inter Milan nor at Parma. The admiration at home and also in the Turkish diaspora was all the greater. And yet the man they called “Kral,” the king, is officially outlawed: There is no reference to him on the homepage of the traditional club Galatasaray; he was expelled from the club in 2017.

Cast out like a drama character

Hakan Sükür is an outcast. His story is reminiscent of a drama of Shakespearean proportions, says Turkey expert Tobias Schächter in the film by NDR journalist Zeisler. In fact, Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” could be the model for the rise and fall of Sükür: the disgraced popular hero and battle winner who makes a mess with the powerful and is cast out.

The footballer’s contact with the ruler was initially close. Sükür’s career in politics was as steep as that in football. Erdogan’s ruling AKP party took advantage of Sükür’s popularity, whose status as a kind of Johan Cruyff of Asia Minor was reason enough to protect him.

However, the liaison was only short-lived: Hakan Sükür left the AKP at the end of 2013. He justified this with their hostile attitude towards the movement of the preacher Fethullah Gülen.

The proximity to the Gülen movement was his downfall. The authorities in Turkey consider Fethullah Gülen to be the mastermind of the failed coup in 2016. At that time, over 300 people were killed. Sükür’s critical stance towards Erdogan’s regime may appear heroic from the outside – but according to liberal understanding, the Gülen movement itself is not necessarily a sympathetic association. It propagates a reactionary image of society. Their goal is to rebuild the secular state.

Sükür found himself caught up in the wheels of politics. The alliance with Erdogan turned into hostility – with consequences for him and his family. In the documentary he says that life in Turkey was made unbearable for him. That’s why he left the country in 2015. Accusations soon emerged that he had insulted Erdogan. Sükür denied: “I didn’t deserve any punishment, I just exposed them by not confessing to them.”

The relentlessness with which action was taken against Sükür also illustrates that this was about making an example of a prominent figure. The message is unmistakable: If even Sükür isn’t safe, then no one is. It is therefore hardly surprising that Sükür is seen by Erdogan’s critics as a symbol of the relentlessness with which sympathizers of the Gülen movement were dealt with as a result of the attempted coup.

What would FC Bayern be without the memory of Franz Beckenbauer?

And so it is that almost everything has been done to erase the memory of Sükür. What it actually means to be hushed up by officials only becomes clear when you ask yourself: What would it be like if FC Bayern disowned Franz Beckenbauer? Or, as the filmmaker Zeisler says, if tomorrow you “hang all the pictures of Uwe Seeler at Hamburger SV”?

 

The author Zeisler speaks of a “wall of fear” when it comes to the Sükür taboo – not only in Turkey, but also in Germany. No Galatasaray fan club accepted an offer to talk; the number of rejections, but also their vehemence, came as a surprise to him, says Zeisler.

Not a single player from the team that came third in the 2002 World Cup under Sükür’s direction commented on the striker’s case. There were prominent kickers there, such as Ümit Davala, who is still known to Bundesliga fans from Werder Bremen. Yildiray Bastürk, who was in Leverkusen at the time, doesn’t appear, nor does Ilhan Mansiz, who comes from the Allgäu.

After all, a single supporter certifies that the former striker was an impeccable sportsman. A survey conducted in Berlin by the author of these lines produces a similar picture: Some people can remember Sükür’s successes well and also like to talk about them. When asked, no one wanted to comment on his political involvement.

There are already legends surrounding Sükür. That’s not surprising with a figure like him. The story is still circulating that Sükür, impoverished, works as a driver for Uber.

In fact, Sükür did not earn his living as a driver; he works for a world-famous online retailer. There may also be doubts that Hakan Sükür is impoverished. Although his Turkish accounts may have been confiscated, that does not mean that he could not have access to other means that are beyond the influence of the Turkish judiciary.

Kowtowing is out of the question for Sükür

In fact, Sükür lost almost everything. If he were an ancient figure and not a present-day protagonist reported in many sources, historians would hardly be able to reconstruct his traces.

A return of Sükür to ​​Turkey? That is unthinkable – at least as long as the president is called Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Although Sükür explains in the documentary that he was promised amnesty if he said a few words of regret about his attitude at the time.

But nothing has changed here. Sükür categorically rules out kowtow, as he explains in the ARD documentary: “I always try to stay upright. Even if I had to explain myself to a gallows in the largest square in the world and they declared me guilty, I would take this step.”