Former Turkey striker Hakan Sukur now lives in the USA (Image: Instagram/@hakansukur9)
Legendary striker Hakan Sukur may be Turkey’s record goalscorer but he has been forced into exile. The former Blackburn Rovers striker, 52, moved to the USA with his family and is unlikely to return soon.
An iconic goalscorer for Galatasaray, Sukur is arguably best known for his exploits with the national team. He captained the Turkey side that took the 2002 World Cup by storm, earning a third-place medal, and scored the fastest goal in tournament history at 10.8 seconds. Two years, earlier, he bagged a brace against Belgium to take Turkey to their first quarter-final at Euro 2000 and finished his career as the country’s leading scorer, with 51 goals in 112 caps.
Those feats meant he was beloved throughout the country and became an Istanbul MP only a few years after retiring in 2008. However, it was his involvement with President Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party and subsequent resignation that would eventually lead Sukur to escape to Palo Alto in California.
“Erdogan took everything from me. My right to freedom, the right to explain myself, to speak out, the right to work,” Sukur said in a 2020 interview with German newspaper Welt am Sontag. “I have property in Turkey worth tens of millions of dollars. But everything was confiscated. They even imprisoned my father.”
“I ran a cafe [called Tuts in Palo Alto] for a while. Strange people came to my cafe and played dombra music,” Sukur continued. “Then we were put under police protection. The FBI watched us for a while. Fortunately, things have gotten better now.”
When asked what he did for work at the time, the ex-Blackburn striker said: “I drive for Uber and I sell books.”
The fall from being arguably Turkey’s greatest-ever footballer and an elected MP began in 2013, when Sukur opted to work as an Independent candidate, resigning from the party after Erdogan closed schools that were associated with Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. Three years later, Gulen was alleged to have led an attempted coup, which led to 300 deaths.
Hakan Sukur (L) scored twice against Belgium to send Turkey through to the Euro 2000 quarter-finals (Image: Getty)
In the aftermath, due to his supposed connection to Gulen, Sukur was branded a member of an armed terrorist group, an offence that would result in a lengthy prison sentence. Earlier that year, Sukur was also alleged to have insulted Erdogan on Twitter.
However, the trial over his social media comments proceeded in Sukur's absence as the iconic forward had already moved his family to the USA in 2015. Sukur insists that he was falsely accused, claiming to have received death threats and had his assets seized.
“If Fethullah Gulen or anyone else committed a crime, that doesn't mean that I or my father committed a crime,” Sukur said. “Can they point to a crime that I have committed? No. They only say ‘traitor’ and terrorist’.
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“Everyone is allowed to believe what they want. But we have to act together in the global world. Not against Erdogan. We have to fight against evil thinking, against terrorism, against those who are against humanity.”
However, after a tough few years, it appears that Sukur is enjoying life in the USA. The ex-forward, who spent a short spell in England with Blackburn Rovers, received his green card last April, allowing him to live and work in the US, and began a soccer school later that year.
This summer, the veteran striker has been providing insight on Turkey’s campaign at Euro 2024 on his YouTube channel, which boasts over 100k subscribers. It is a useful outlet for Sukur, who is unlikely to be hired by a Turkish broadcaster any time soon.
It was claimed during the 2022 World Cup that a commentator was replaced midway through a game and later sacked after mentioning that Sukur still held the record for the fastest goal. Despite the adversity he has faced, Sukur’s love of Turkey has not diminished.
“I am an enemy of the government, not of the state and not of the Turkish nation,” Sukur explained. “I love our flag, our country. I am an enemy of wrong politics and a mentality that aims at detachment from the West. And of politicians who feel cornered because they have committed many crimes and fear all those who remind them of their crimes.”
