Mustafa Özkan

Mustafa Özkan ( born February 21, 1975 in Forchheim, Germany ) is a retired German -Turkish football player. Based on his work for Beşiktaş Istanbul and Ankara Gençlerbirliği he is associated with these clubs.

Playing career

Association

Mustafa Özkan came as the son of Turkish guest workers in Forchheim on the world. Here he began playing football in the youth departments of various amateur clubs. Later he moved to the youth of the 1st FC Nuremberg. For the summer of 1993 he was accepted at this club in the squad of the professional team, but sat two years either on the bench or playing for the reserve team. For the summer of 1995 he moved to the highest Turkish league for Turkish club Beşiktaş Istanbul tradition. Here he was often set up as a strike partner of Stefan Kuntz by German coach Christoph Daum despite the fierce competition on the striker position with Oktay Derelioğlu and Orhan Kaynak. Daum was released shortly before the season ends and replaced for the new season by the Turkish coach Rasim Kara. This preferred by storm rather the very large aufspielenden Derelioğlu and the newly added Nigerian Daniel Amokachi. In addition to these set two strikers rather the players Kaynak and Serdar Topraktepe were used.

After Özkan saw no prospects for themselves in Beşiktaş, he moved to the 1997/98 season to the first division Kocaelispor. Even with this club he could conquer a regular place. He was loaned out for the second half of the Premier League rivals İstanbulspor. After a mixed second half he returned to the summer of 1998 back to Kocaelispor back.

After he was active for Kocaelispor until the summer of 1999, he left Turkey and moved to the 2nd Bundesliga to the Stuttgarter Kickers. In his first season for this club, he came to regular inserts and scored in 14 league games two goals. The second season, he was hardly considered by the coaching staff and played only six times.

For summer 2001, he was in front of a tender by the Turkish first division club Göztepe Izmir. Since Özkan rather eked out a reservist existence of the Stuttgart kickers, he accepted the offer and moved again in the Turkish league. Here the team of Riza Çalımbay was supervised, a former teammate Özkans from his time at Beşiktaş. Under this coach Özkan played a successful season and met ten times in 33 league matches. His club missed the end of the season in the league and put up at the TFF 1 Lig.

Çalımbay, who left in 2001/ 02 Göztepe already the winter break of the season and took over the first division Denizlispor, led his club leaders to commit to the upcoming season Özkan. Denizlispor had finished the previous season in 5th place in the table and thus qualified for the UEFA Cup in the 2002/03 season. Here you sit in the first round against the French side FC Lorient by. In the next few rounds you beat Sparta Prague surprising and Olympique Lyon and met in the second round to the subsequent UEFA Cup winners FC Porto. Against the then little-known Portuguese José Mourinho managed to lost the first leg in Porto 1:6. In the return leg on home turf you achieved a respectable 2:2 and thus retired. Özkan achieved in this UEFA Cup season six goals in seven games and had so on the second round participation of his club, which was also the same time, the best performance of the club's history, significant share. In the league you missed the 10th place in the table reached a renewed participation in European competition.

For the next season he moved to first division Gençlerbirliği Ankara. Here worked with Ersun Yanal a young coach who had the intention to build a competitive team. Yanal, who previously oversaw Denizlispor twice, had a considerable share in bringing about the transfer. Gençlerbirliği had qualified through a third place in the table in the preseason for the UEFA Cup in the 2003/04 season. With this club Özkan experienced an equally successful UEFA Cup season as before with Denizlispor. In the first round you won against the English club Blackburn Rovers and turned off in the second round of Sporting Lisbon. In the third round they met the Italian giants AC Parma. After surprisingly won the first leg 1-0 at Parma, one made ​​in the return leg on home soil with a 3-0 for a small sensation. In the second round they met the subsequent UEFA Cup winners FC Valencia. After winning the first game on home turf 1-0, they lost the return leg 0-2. With a score of 0:1 Özkan saw in the 88th minute, the yellow- red card and weakened so unhappy his team. Valencia scored in the 94th minute, the 0:2 and came to the next round. Özkan had to live with many accusations after the game for a long time. Gençlerbirliği reached in the same season, the final of the Turkish Football Cup, thus securing a renewed participation in the UEFA Cup. The final game they lost 0-4 against Trabzonspor. Although Özkan in the UEFA Cup fell short of expectations, he scored in the league with 13 goals in 32 games. At season's end Yanal left the club and was the Turkish national team coach. In Gençlerbirliği was hired as the new coach Erdoğan Arıca. After you stayed with this trainer short of expectations and the UEFA Cup already eliminated in the second round against Egaleo AO Athens, Arıca was established in early October 2004 Oğuz Çetin replaced. Even under this new coach the expected improvements did not set, so you introduced to Ziya Doğan second half as their new coach. This achieved the hoped-for turnaround. So you finished the league on the 5th place in the table.

The success coach Doğan could come to an agreement in the contract extension with Gençlerbirliği and took over for the new season the first division Malatyaspor. Doğan, who is known to love to want to work with the same players, learned of the expiry of the Treaty of Özkan and persuaded him to a switch to Malatyaspor. In Malatyaspor the season for both Doğan and for Özkan was mixed. So Doğan left the club before season's end. Özkan even sparked the end of the season by mutual agreement with Malatyaspor his contract and moved on within the league to MKE Ankaragucu. Here he played for two seasons and worked with, among other things with the coaches Hikmet Karaman, Hans -Peter Briegel, Hakan Kutlu and Ünal Karaman.

With the expiry of his contract, he left and joined Ankaragucu within the League newly promoted Antalyaspor. The main reason for this change was the fact that Antalyaspor was cared for by his former coach Karaman. Under this coach, the club reached in the preseason, the runner-up of the TFF 1 Lig and thus promotion to the Süper Lig Özkan played one season for Antalyaspor and left the club towards Movers Diyarbakirspor where his old Ziya Doğan conveyor involved in coaching. After Diyarbakirspor ran into financial difficulties, Özkan also sparked here his contract after only half a season and left the club.

For the second half of the season he moved to second division Çaykur Rizespor. He played only two months and triggered by mutual consent with the club's management on his contract. For the summer, he then ended his active professional footballer career.

National

Özkan ran 15 times on Turkish U -21 national team, scoring five goals.

With the Olympic selection of the Turkish national team, he took part in the 1997 Mediterranean Games and won the silver medal.

As part of a friendly match against the Ukrainian National Özkan was nominated by then- coach Senol Güneş in the Squad of the Turkish national team. In this game of 12 February 2002 he made ​​his first and only international match.

Achievements

• With Denizlispor Eighth finalist in the UEFA Cup: 2002 /03

• With Gençlerbirliği Ankara 5th place in the table of the Süper Lig: 2004/ 05
• Turkish Cup Runners-up: 2003/ 04
• Eighth finalist in the UEFA Cup: 2003 /04

• With the Olympic selection Turkey: Mediterranean Games Silver Medal: 1997