As he nears the centre spot before kick off at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion on Wednesday, Turkish pennant in his hand, palm extended to his rival captain and the referee, Hakan Calhanoglu might just pause for a moment to remember a moment of inspiration.
Just outside this very centre circle, Turkey’s captain scored a breathtaking goal they still talk about in Hamburg. He struck it from more than 40 metres from the target, and its flight path was so full of unexpected swerves and sudden dips it seemed to defy the laws of physics.
Calhangolu’s wonder strike, in a late-season Bundesliga fixture for Hamburg against Borussia Dortmund, announced his special skill with a dead ball to a wider world. In the decade since, Calhanoglu has become acknowledged as one of the game’s great virtuosos with free kicks and corners, and a masterly passer over ambitious distances, assets that have taken him a long way from Hamburg, where, as a 20-year-old he was often helping stave off relegation.
After he left – a fractious departure – the club struggled on through various battles against the drop but the arena Calhangolu revisits today, leading a Turkey anxious about their progress to the knockout stage of Euro 2024, has long become used to hosting club games in Germany’s second tier.
For Turkey-Czech Republic, a rousing atmosphere at the Volksparkstadion is guaranteed. Hamburg is home to the fourth highest urban concentration of Germans of Turkish heritage and, in a country where the community numbers an estimated seven million, support for the Crescent-Stars at the championship so far has been conspicuous.
Seldom has that community had such prominence at the top of the sport in both Turkey and Germany.
Calhanoglu, fresh from winning last season’s Italian league title with Inter Milan, was born in Mannheim, his parents having moved from Anatolia, to lend their skills to a German labour market that had been eagerly recruiting in Turkey from the 1960s onwards.
As it turned out, the family would also bequeath a great deal of future sporting talent to their adopted home. Hakan’s brother Muhammed has also pursued a professional football career; likewise his cousin, Kerim, who has represented Germany at various youth levels.
The same choice, Germany or Turkey, was open to Hakan Calhanoglu, whose creative passing and improvisation at Hamburg made him prized first by Bayer Leverkusen – beneficiaries of a contested transfer from Hamburg in the summer of 2014 – then AC Milan, and then Inter, where his adaptation to a deeper midfield role has advanced still further his reputation.
His stock in German club football remains high. Rumbling along in the background to the Euros is Bayern Munich’s sustained interest in luring Calhanoglu, now 30, back to the Bundesliga. Inter will only let him go for a very significant fee.
Meanwhile, the German national team have, over the past five or six years, had cause to regret Calhanoglu’s decision, taken in his teens, to represent the country of his heritage rather than his birth. They could have done with a passer like him.
Germany’s blessing is that Ilkay Gundogan, whose grandfather Ismail left Balikesir in Turkey to work as a miner in the Ruhr, did elect to play for his native country. The Barcelona and former Manchester City star is captaining the host nation at these Euros, leader of a squad that also includes Borussia Dortmund’s Emre Can and Deniz Undav, other footballers of Turkish heritage.
Among Calhanoglu’s Turkey teammates are the German-born quartet of Salih Ozcan, Kaan Ayhan, Cenk Tosun and the teenager Kenan Yildiz, also in Serie A with Juventus.
Turkey 0 Portugal 3 – player ratings
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TURKEY RATINGS. Let in three and played his part in horrible mix up for second goal. Reuters -
One first-half cross should have led to the opener. Fell asleep and played Ronaldo onside in prelude to goal number three. Booked for dissent. AFP -
Will have nightmares about the no look back-pass that gifted Portugal a 2-0 lead. Harshly booked but needs to stay on his feet more. A bit of a disaster all round. Getty Images -
Never convinced. Too quick to go to ground. Dived in recklessly as Ronalso set up the third. Booked. Getty Images -
The only member of Turkey's back four not to be booked. Had a difficult game but kept going. AP -
Got on the ball and a couple of decent passes early on as Turkey looked to break at pace. Disappeared as Portugal took over. EPA -
One glorious switch of play led to great chance for Akturkoglu in early going but struggled to impact game and set-piece deliveries were below his usual high standard. EPA -
Missed big chance early in game. Tested Costa after wriggling free in a rare Turkey attack. Withdrawn on the hour. EPA -
Deflected the ball into Silva's path for opening goal. Hooked at half-time. Getty Images -
Lively enough in the opening exchanges but anonymous after that. Failed to track Mendes in build-up to opener. Replaced by Guler with 20 minutes remaining. Getty Images -
Starved of service and completely ineffective. AFP -
TURKEY SUBS. (On for Kokcu, 45'): Tried to add energy but was parachuted into a losing effort. EPA -
(On for Akturkoglu, 58'): Precious little chance to show quality with team sliding towards heavy defeat. EPA -
(On for Ayhan, 58'): Pitched into hopelessly overmatched Turkish midfield. Getty Images -
(On Akgun, 70'): Not fit to start and will need to be if Turkey are to bounce back from this. Getty Images -
(On for Akaydin, 75'): Solid enough and will surely get a start now after the performances of the starting centre-backs. Reuters -
PORTUGAL RATINGS. Portugal had only kept one clean sheet in last six, yet Roberto Martinez’s side were barely troubled as they went through as group winners. AFP -
Beaten at the far post as Turkey almost went ahead after six minutes, then ran forward and misplaced a pass for Ronaldo. He was saved as the Turkish defender Akaydin turned it into his own net for the second goal. AP -
The 41-year-old used all his experience in his fifth Euros to make brilliantly timed challenges and interceptions against players half his age. Still reads the game so well. Received an ovation, even from the vast Turkish following, as he left the field. AP -
Faultless on the floor and in the air, he had more touches – by a distance – than any other player. Reuters -
Left-back got forward from deep to cross for the opening goal in a move which undid Turkey. Created a vast space for his teammates to exploit. EPA -
Central midfielder is an important player for Portugal, he used his height to head away early Turkish pressure. Booked. Reuters -
Right-sided midfielder who surged forward to support the attack for the first goal. A smooth game for a smooth team who are among the favourites. Getty Images -
Started on left but came central. Got the second by staying onside as Portugal were gifted another goal. AFP -
Put Portugal ahead, a left-foot finish from a cross. In doing so he became the first Man City player to score against a Man United goalkeeper (Bayindir) in a major tournament. Tried to reverse an 89th minute shot into the goal for a fourth when a pass would have been better. Helped control the game and always hits the target. AFP -
Miscommunication in an attack – but not as bad as for the Turkish players as it went in. Shot over on 36 minutes as Portugal easily beat Turkey’s press. Playing in his sixth Euros, he stayed onside and unselfishly set up Fernandes for the third. Reuters -
Yellow card – accurate but disputed by his coach - means he’ll miss the next game against Georgia. Both yellows were for diving. Such is Portugal’s depth, his loss will be covered. EPA -
PORTUGAL SUBS. (On for Leao, 46'): On for the booked Leao at half time. Valuable minutes for the first of the five subs in one of the strongest squads. EPA -
(On for Palhinha, 45'): On for the cautioned Palhinha at the break. Lovely feet. Reuters -
(On for Cancelo, 68'): Helped retain the calm. EPA -
(On for Pepe, 83'): Gave Pepe a late breather. EPA -
(On for Vitinha, 88'): On for closing stages, the 19-year-old central midfielder is tipped to be a breakout star in Euro 2024. Reuters
All of them follow in a distinguished line of Turkish-German players, many of whom confronted prejudice rising through the sport. Mesut Ozil, a stellar contributor to Germany’s World Cup triumph in 2014, retired from representing the country four years later with the observation that “I am a German when we win and an immigrant when we lose.” Ozil and Gundogan had been criticised by the German Football Federation for posing, in London in 2018, for a photograph with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ozil’s direct contemporary, Nuri Sahin, German-born but committed to Turkey, from youth level upwards and through more than 50 senior caps, encountered criticism within Germany for his choice of national jersey when he was a young midfielder, starring for Dortmund, and, like Ozil, later signing for Real Madrid.
Sahin, still only 35, remains a high-profile and pioneering figure in the sport – earlier this month, he was appointed new manager at Dortmund, second only to Bayern in the hierarchy of Germany’s best supported clubs and runners-up to Real Madrid, three weeks ago, in the Uefa Champions League.
For Calhanoglu, the task in the city he used to call home, will be to channel the noisy local backing that has accompanied Turkey through their group stage matches so far, and to re-establish the command his team showed in their opening 3-1 victory over Georgia.
An error-strewn 3-0 defeat to Portugal in their second match has left Turkey vulnerable going into matchday three. Defeat to the Czechs could mean an early exit. Avoiding defeat would guarantee second place, behind the Portuguese in Group F, and a last-16 game in Leipzig on Monday.
Turkey will be without the suspended Abdulkerim Bardakci in central defence, have a doubt over whether first-choice goalkeeper Mert Gunok, who missed the Portugal defeat with injury, will be ready to return. A good deal of attention will be cast on whether the Real Madrid starlet, Arda Guler, is included in the starting line-up. Guler, 19, struck a sensational goal to regain the lead against Georgia but was left out of the XI in the following fixture.
“I didn’t want to risk him for more than 30 minutes,” Turkey manager Vicenzo Montella explained, citing a light injury the striker had been carrying. Fans made it clear through the Portugal game they wanted to see Guler on the pitch for more than just his 20 minutes at the end, chasing a three-goal deficit.
“We have to look forward,” said Calhanoglu. “We gave away goals against Portugal but these things can happen. We need to focus now on getting second place in the group.”
