Alpay Özalan

Alpay Özalan (* May 29, 1973 in Izmir ) is a former Turkish football player and 90 -fold Turkish national team.

Career

Alpay Özalan was awarded a Fair Play Award UEFA, as he let the last man in defense, the player Goran Vlaović in a game of football championship in 1996 against Croatia and not pulled the emergency brake and Vlaović the only and launch winning goal scored for Croatia. Özalan found himself suspended by the Turkish media criticism, since in their opinion a foul and the prevention of the opportunity to score would have been tactically intelligent. This criticism had a lasting influence on his footballing further personal development. He claimed to have never rejoiced at this price.

Özalan was elected at the Football World Cup 2002 in the Team of the Tournament, and he demanded a raise after his return to his club Aston Villa. Therefore, it was little used in the 2002/03 season by coach Graham Taylor. At the beginning of the season 2003/ 04 he came because of the furious reactions of the fans rarely.

On October 11, 2003 there was the qualifier for the 2004 European Football Championship against England in a physical confrontation with England star David Beckham. This led to a further break with the English fans and media, and he was discharged on October 23, 2003 by Aston Villa. In 2004 he moved into the Korean K -League to Incheon United. However, he played here only six months before he moved on to the J-League to the Urawa Red Diamonds, where his contract was terminated due to disciplinary problems after another six months.

On August 1, 2005 Alpay Özalan signed a one-year contract with the Bundesliga club 1.FC Cologne. Because multiple derailments and assaults ( kicks and punches ) on the opponent, such as an elbow check against Hamburg Guy Demel, he was awarded in December 2005 by the DFB a lock of 4 competitive games. However, he enjoyed among fans of the 1st FC Cologne's great popularity.

After a defeat in the decisive play-off match to qualify for the Football World Cup 2006 against the Swiss national team, he was a blow to the Swiss Stéphane Grichting and imitated flapping against Swiss player a causative factor in the subsequent physical altercation with several casualties. For this he has been banned by FIFA for six internationals.

After he had his own teammates assaulted during training of the 1st FC Cologne, he was offered by club professional help page ( psychological support ) to. However Özalan struck from the offer and vowed repeatedly improvement. On 23 November 2007 he was suspended by the club, as he had expressed criticism of the Cologne coach Christoph Daum, with whom he had grown up together with 1995 Besiktas Istanbul Turkish masters. He said: " This is no longer the thumb, I know. He no longer has the will and the aggressiveness that I have always appreciated about him. "

When he found after a long time yet no club, he decided to end his active career.

Career as athletic director

He is currently working as athletic director in the fourth Turkish league with Siirtspor.