For all the football fans out there, especially those who are in the late ’90s, Hakan Sukur is definitely a familiar name due to his legendary performance at the 2002 World Cup. The amazing Turkish striker needed just 10.8 seconds to eventually record the tournament’s fastest goal against the hosts South Korea and the record remains to this day. He has held the record for most scorers of all time in Turkey with 51 goals to place him as his country’s football legend.
But due to the harsh political unrest that happened a few years ago, he had to ‘escape’ all the way to the United States and is now working to be just an Uber driver. Such an unworthy life for a legendary football player. Hakan Sukur has joined Blackburn Rovers and Inter Milan once, but the peak of his career was when he represented Galatasaray before hanging up his boots in the year 2008 and then being recognized as a legendary player of the Turkish club.
Picture: Caught Offside
As soon as he retired as a professional player, he became a sports commentator before becoming active in politics. Hakan Sukur ran in elections and was elected Turkish MP in 2011. But two years later, he resign from the party. Despite that, his position as a Member of Parliament remains and he remains in the seat as an independent elected representative. He then emigrated to the United States and began a new life in San Francisco.
Today, he has to get on with his life by becoming an Uber driver and selling books. This is definitely not a good life journey for him when he cannot return to his homeland even though his name is engraved as a football legend there.
Sources: Give Me Sport, Sport Bible.
