Colin Kâzım-Richards

Bury

Kazim-Richards left his native East London to play for Bury when he was 15.

Brighton & Hove Albion

In June 2005, at the age of 18, he was signed on a three-year contract by Brighton & Hove Albion for £250,000. The contract was signed after a fan of the club, Aaron Berry, won the sum for the club in a competition run by Coca-Cola which, in turn, led to Kazim-Richards being dubbed the "Coca-Cola Kid". In August 2006, at the start of the new season, he tried to hand in a transfer request after being dropped by manager Mark McGhee.

Sheffield United

Subsequently, Brighton sold him to Sheffield United for £150,000 on 31 August 2006, the deadline day for the transfer window. Kazim-Richards signed a three-year deal with the Blades after passing a medical and agreeing personal terms. He scored once in his only season in top-flight English football for the eventually relegated Blades, in a 2–2 draw with Bolton Wanderers on 11 November 2006.

Fenerbahçe

On 15 June 2007, Kazim-Richards signed a four-year contract with the Turkish club Fenerbahçe. He scored his second UEFA Champions League goal for Fenerbahçe in the quarter-final first leg against Chelsea on 2 April 2008. After serving as a rotation player during the 2007–08 and 2008–09 seasons, Kazim-Richards broke into Christoph Daum's first choice line-up in the 2009–10 season. Despite success on the pitch during the 2009–10 season, Kazim-Richards had an argument with Fenerbahçe fans after…

Kazim-Richards scored and was credited with an assist in his debut for the Turkey under-21 team in a victory against Switzerland on 24 March 2007. On 30 April, the Turkey national team coach Fatih Terim declared that Kazim-Richards would play for the senior team. Terim called him up for matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Brazil. He received his first senior international cap in a 0–0 friendly draw against Brazil on 5 June 2007, a game in which he played 38 minutes. He was a member of Turkey's Euro 2008 squad, playing in all five matches as the side reached the semi-finals. On 10 August 2011, he scored two goals in a friendly match against Estonia at Türk Telekom Stadium.

Kazim-Richards was appointed as a coach in the Arsenal academy in summer 2024. On 24 March 2026, Kazim-Richards was appointed as head coach of EFL League Two club Crawley Town with the club a point above the relegation places. Having avoided relegation on the final day of the season, he signed a new deal on 12 May 2026.

Born in London, Kazim-Richards attended Greenleaf Primary School in Walthamstow, where he developed an interest in football, which continued into his secondary education at Aveling Park, Walthamstow. His mother is a Turkish Cypriot (which enabled him to join the Turkey national team), and his father is of Antiguan descent. In a 2008 interview he said:

It's difficult because half my family is Muslim, and the other half is Christian. I've always felt Turkish, though. My nene [grandmother], she can't speak English. Half of my family, their first language is Turkish, and so I went to Turkish school before I played football, although I can't remember any of it now. In his youth, Kazim-Richards lost his infant brother to Edwards syndrome and three cousins in unrelated incidents: a heart attack while playing football, a brain haemorrhage in the bathtub, and a car crash. Another of his cousins, Andros Townsend, became a professional footballer, while his uncle, Troy Townsend, has worked heavily with Kick It Out, combatting racism in football.