İlhan Mansız

İlhan Mansız (born 10 August 1975) is a German-born Turkish former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is also a competing figure skater. He is of Crimean Tatar descent.<ref>13 maddede Türk futbolunun şanssız prensi: İlhan Mansız Template:Webarchive</ref>

Playing career

Club career

Mansız gained international recognition at Istanbul's Beşiktaş J.K., and was later acquired by the Vissel Kobe football club in Japan.

After his Japan journey, he signed a contract with Hertha BSC, but, because of his injury, he never had a chance to play for the first team. His contract was cancelled due to a clause in the contract saying that if his knee was injured again, they would release him.<ref>Gastspieler-Trio bei den Löwen im Training Template:Webarchive</ref> After his short stint with Hertha BSC, İlhan signed a one-year contract with Turkish club Ankaragücü. He was slowly but surely coming back from his plague of injuries and helping Ankaragücü in the Turkcell Super League.<ref>Zweite Chance für Ilhan Mansiz Template:Webarchive</ref>

Before the 2006–07 season, he declared his decision to retire from football. As of 2007 there were rumors that he was getting training in Los Angeles, US, to make a comeback to football. These rumors are revealed by İlhan Mansız and he declared to sign contract with Ankaragücü again. However, this final comeback attempt was abandoned before the 2007–08 season, as he announced his retirement.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

After a car accident in 2007, it seemed the career of İlhan Mansız had ended. In July 2009, after seven knee operations, he tried to make a comeback by training with German second-division side TSV 1860 Munich.<ref>Sportnachrichten - Live-Ticker, Streams, Videos und News - LAOLA1.at</ref>

International career

İlhan made his debut for Turkey as a substitute during their final group-stage qualifier against Moldova in October 2001.<ref>Schnappen sich die Löwen Daums Torschützenkönig?</ref> The speedy striker earned his way onto coach Şenol Güneş' squad on the strength of an outstanding 2001–02 season for Beşiktaş, when he led the Süper Lig in scoring and helped the squad to a third-place finish.

The best goal of his career came in the 2002 FIFA World Cup quarter final against Senegal. He came on as a substitute for Hakan Şükür in the 67th minute, and netted a golden goal in the 94th minute to send Turkey through to the last four of the competition, in which they ended up taking third place. This was the last time where the golden goal was used in World Cup for extra-time matches. In the third place game İlhan Mansız assisted Hakan Şükür to score the fastest goal ever in a World Cup finals match,<ref>Video of fastest goal ever in World Cup history</ref> and went on to score his team's two other goals in the match.

He is also remembered by his rainbow flick against Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos in 2002 World Cup semifinal clash, which was one of the best skill displays of the cup.

Mansız was a relative unknown in international circles prior to the 2002 World Cup. Despite his display of prodigious talent on the world stage, his health concerns and advanced age precluded serious consideration on the part of European clubs. Mansız declared "It is too late for me, I wish I had been discovered sooner in my career."

Coaching career

On 11 July 2018, Beşiktaş J.K. announced via their social media accounts that Mansız was appointed as assistant coach to the club, along with Guti, another former player of club.<ref name=Besiktascoaching1>Template:Cite news</ref> Mansız quit his job at Beşiktaş on 6 February 2019 due to health concerns.<ref name=Besiktascoaching2>Template:Cite news</ref>

Figure skating

Template:Update section Mansız learned to skate at the relatively late age of 33<ref>Returning guests and Olympic dreams in Oberstdorf</ref> when he competed on the Turkish show Buzda Dans, as a pair skater with partner Oľga Beständigová, who is also his girlfriend.

After winning the show, Mansız announced his goal was to represent Turkey at the 2014 Winter Olympics,<ref name=absint>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> hoping to become the first athlete to compete in both the football World Cup and the Winter Olympics since Aleksandar Shalamanov of Bulgaria.<ref>News report: Football star's new goal: Olympic skating champion (Youtube)</ref><ref>News report: Ex-Nationalspieler Mansiz will als Eiskunstläufer zu Olympia (Youtube)</ref>

Mansız and Beständigová made their competitive debut at the 2013 Nebelhorn Trophy, which was also the final qualifying opportunity for the 2014 Olympics. They finished 19th and last in the pairs event,<ref>2013 Nebelhorn Trophy pairs result</ref> ending their hope of skating at the Olympic Games. Nonetheless, they continued to compete.

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			National Cup		League Cup		Continental		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Gençlerbirliği	1995–96	Süper Lig	2	0
Kuşadasıspor	1997–98	Turkish Second Football League	37	19
Samsunspor	1998–99	Süper Lig	27	4
	1999-00		31	10
	2000–01		31	12
	Total		89	26
Beşiktaş	2001–02	Süper Lig	30	21
	2002–03		23	7
	2003–04		13	8
	Total		66	36
Vissel Kobe	2004	J1 League	3	0	-		0	0	-		3	0
Hertha BSC	2004–05	Bundesliga	0	0
Ankaragücü	2005–06	Süper Lig	9	4
Career total			206	85

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year<ref>Template:NFT</ref>

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Turkey	2001	2	1
	2002	13	5
	2003	6	1
Total		21	7

Scores and results list Turkey's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mansız goal.

List of international goals scored by İlhan Mansız

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	6 October 2001	Stadionul Republican, Chişinău, Moldova	Template:Fb	3–0	3–0	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
2	17 April 2002	Kerkrade, Netherlands	Template:Fb	2–0	2–0	Friendly
3	22 June 2002	Osaka, Japan	Template:Fb	1–0	1–0	2002 FIFA World Cup
4	29 June 2002	Daegu, South Korea	Template:Fb	2–1	3–2	2002 FIFA World Cup
5	29 June 2002	Daegu, South Korea	Template:Fb	3–1	3–2	2002 FIFA World Cup
6	16 October 2002	Istanbul, Turkey	Template:Fb	3–0	5–0	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
7	19 November 2003	Istanbul, Turkey	Template:Fb	1–0	2–2	UEFA Euro 2004 Qualifying

Honours

Beşiktaş

• Süper Lig: 2002–03

Turkey

• FIFA World Cup: third place 2002<ref name="WC 2002 Bronze (1)">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="WC 2002 Bronze (2)">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="WC 2002 Bronze (3)">Template:Cite news</ref>

Individual

• Süper Lig top goalscorer: 2001–02<ref name="Süper Lig Top Scorer">Template:Cite news</ref>

Order

• Turkish State Medal of Distinguished Service<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

External links

• Template:FIFA player
• Template:NFT player
• Template:J.League player