Alpaslan Öztürk

Early life and career

Öztürk was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and is of Turkish descent. He was part of the youth system at Berchem Sport before joining Germinal Beerschot at the age of 12, and then moved to England to join Birmingham City's Youth Academy in 2009. He played regularly in the under-18 and reserve teams, and in March 2011, was given a first-team squad number prior to the FA Cup sixth-round tie against Bolton Wanderers. In the absence through injury of Stephen Carr and Roger Johnson, and with Liam Ridgewell not fit enough to start, Öztürk was named among the substitutes for that game, but remained unused. He was part of the Birmingham squad for their 2011 pre-season visit to Ireland, and played the second half of the friendly against Cork City. In August 2011, he left the club. It was reported that no agreement could be reached between Birmingham and Beerschot on a mutually acceptable way to structure a compensation fee.

Beerschot

Öztürk returned to Beerschot for the 2011–12 season. Playing as a midfielder rather than the right back position he usually occupied at Birmingham, he was an unused substitute for the first team's visit to Standard Liège in January 2012, made his debut as Beerschot beat K.V. Kortrijk in the Belgian Cup, and played the full 90 minutes on his first Belgian Pro League appearance as Beerschot beat Cercle Brugge 4–0 on 21 January. In February, his contract was extended to June 2016. Beerschot were relegated from the Pro…

Öztürk made his international debut for the Turkey under-18 team in November 2010, in the starting eleven for a friendly match against their German counterparts, and came off the substitutes' bench against the same opponents two days later. In January 2011, he was selected for his native Belgium's under-18 team, and was in the starting eleven for two friendlies against France U18. He played twice more a few weeks later in friendlies against Estonia U18, and twice more in the 2011 Slovakia Cup. In August 2011, Öztürk moved up to the Belgium under-19 team, becoming a regular selection both in friendly matches and in qualification for the 2012 UEFA under-19 championships. He scored his first international goal in a 4–1 friendly defeat of Turkey on 7 September. In February 2013, Öztürk was called up to the Turkish under-21 squad for the upcoming match against Norway, but played no part. He did appear for Turkey's under-20 side in two friendly matches against their Portuguese counterparts in March 2013 – in the first of the two, he scored the second goal in a 2–1 win. Selected for Turkey's squad for the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup, he started all three of Turkey's group matches and their second-round defeat to eventual winners France. Öztürk made his under-21 debut for Turkey in their opening qualification match for the 2015 European championships, a 4–0 home win against Malta. He made his debut for Turkey national football team on 1 September 2021 in a World Cup qualifier against…

Club

As of match played 23 August 2024