Hakan Şükür: Turkey legend lives very different life after being exiled | OneFootball

Hakan Suker is one of the greatest footballers in Turkey’s history.

Suker enjoyed an illustrious career that saw him play for the likes of Galatasaray, Inter Milan, Parma and Blackburn Rovers.

He featured 112 times for his country and is their record goalscorer having hit the back of the net 51 times. He played a pivotal role as Turkey finished third at the 2002 World Cup.

Suker decided to hang up his boots in 2007 after a glittering playing career.

He now lives a very different life after a crazy yet sad 15 years.

Suker decided to move into politics following his retirement from football.

He fell out with president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and was charged with insulting him on Twitter in 2016.

Per the Guardian, Suker claimed he did not intend to target the president in his posts, but that notion was rejected by prosecutors.

Later that year, he was accused of participating in a failed coup to overthrow Erdogan.

Per the Sun

Suker: I have nothing left

In an interview with German publication Welt am Sonntag in 2020, Sukur explained how he lost everything as a result of his disagreement with Erdogan and fled to the US.

“I have nothing left, Erdogan took everything: my right to liberty, freedom of expression and right to work,” Sukur said, per the Daily Mail.

“Nobody seems able to explain what my role in this coup was supposed to be. I never did anything illegal, I am not a traitor or a terrorist.

“I might be an enemy [of] this government, but not the state or the Turkish nation. I love my country.

“After the split with Erdogan, I started to receive threats. My wife’s shop was attacked, my children were harassed, my father put in prison and all my assets confiscated."

Suker revealed that he became an Uber driver, a post who still held in December 2021.

“So I moved to the United States, initially running a cafe in California, but strange people kept coming into the bar. Now I drive for Uber and I sell books.”

Whether Suker is every allowed to return to his home county remains to be seen.