2 Turkish football players will compete in the UEFA Champions League final. Turkey’s national player HAKAN CALHANOGLU who plays for Inter, and Manchester City's Turkish-born German national star ILKAY GUNDOGAN will take part in the final at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium on June 10, 2023.
Turkish footballers who played in the Champions League Final earlier
After YILDIRAY BASTURK with Bayern Leverkusen and NURI SAHIN with Borussia Dortmund, and ILKAY GUNDOGAN, now HAKAN CALHANOGLU with INTER will join the group of Turkish players who have played finals. (Note: Ilkay Gundogan is of Turkish descent in the records because he wears the jersey of the German national team). While 4 Turkish-origin football players have managed to play finals in the UEFA Champions League until this season, this number will increase to 6 when Hakan Calhanoglu and Ilkay Gundogan play in the organization in Istanbul.
The Champions League trophy will be raised for the first time in the hands of a football player of Turkish origins.
The trophy will certainly be raised by a Turkish football player for the first time in the Champions League final to be played in Istanbul. In the Cup 1 final, Manchester City and Inter will face off on June 10.
On Saturday, June 10th, the English team Manchester City and the Italian team Inter will face off in the final, which will be hosted by the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul for the second time.
Manchester City's captain Ilkay Gundogan and Inter's captain Hakan Calhanoglu will try to take the trophy to their own museum. While both Calhanoglu and Gundogan are captains of their teams, one of the two Turkish players who will leave the final match with a victory will be eligible to lift the trophy. In both cases, the "Giants League" cup will be raised in the hands of a football player of Turkish origin for the first time in history.
Ilkay Gundogan, the captain of Manchester City, one of the finalists of the Champions League this season, played in 12, and Hakan Calhanoglu, the captain of Inter, played in 11 "League of Giants" challenges. Both players scored 1 goal and 2 assists in these matches.
