- *NEW*Cars: Emre has a number of cars in Turkey and in Italy. In turkey he drives a BMW. His newest car is a yellow mini cooper that he bought in Italy.
- Languages: Turkish, English and Italian
- Interests: listening to music, going to the cinema, eating at restaurants
- Fav Books: Books about the Ottoman History and Republican History
- Favourite sports: football, tennis and basketball
- *NEW*Favourite Italian Foods: Pasta with four cheese sauce. (and cakes!)
- Fears: Being alone and the dark
- Nervous habit: When he gets nervous / excited he goes red and sweats.
- weak point: gets angry very quickly
- Current Residence: Whilst in Italy, Emre lives in Milan, with his good friend, and fellow inter and turkish team mate Okan Buruk. When he is at home in Turkey, he also shares a home with Okan in Florya, Istanbul.
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*NEW*House features: Okan and Emre's flat has 5 bedrooms and they pay US $3000 a month for it. Inside the house they have several pieces of gym equipment, a huge tv, and a cupboard where they put presents from their fans.
- Speculated Value: 9.14 million (english pounds)
Playing history
- Emre has played for the Turkish U/16, U/18 and U/21 international teams.
- Emre is the youngest Galatasaray player ever to play in a UEFA Championship League game. (He was 17 years old at the time).
- Emre made his International debut in February 2000, vs Norway.
- He has had 16 International caps.
- International goals: 3 Moldova, Costa Rica (2002), Italy (2002)
- Honours: European Supercup 2000; Turkish League 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000; Turkish Cup 1999, 2000
Clubs
- Emre's professional playing career began at Galatasary, Istanbul.
- In the 2001-2002 season, Emre transfered to Inter Milan in Italy. His current contract with Inter is set to expire in 2004.
Influences
- Emre regards Fatih Terim (coach),Gheorghe Hagi (fellow Galatasary mf) and portugese player Mauel Rui Costa as his biggest influences.
Emre Belozoglu- One giant’s story
Emre’s story starts on the 8th of September 1980, in Zeytinburnu at the Bahcekapi estate in apartment 29. Emre’s dad is an old footballer that they called “Pilich Mehmet” (pilich means young chicken in Turkish, it refers to him as being the young one) his father started his career at Yedikule, then Edirnespor and Ankara Demirspor. His biggest dream was to wear a galatasaray shirt, but an injury and money problems did not let him achieve this.
The Belozoglu family’s only hope is little Emre, at 7 years old Emre’s star is shining whilst he is playing for his village’s team, Gunespor.
The one who put football in his head, Emre’s father, took him by the arm and brought him to football training. When I say training, its wasn’t like it is now, it was the bottom part of the Zeytinburnuspor training ground… Of course at the time to bring out Emre’s talent is not easy.
Fatma Belozoglu, Emre’s mother, saw the problems that her husband had faced and did not want Emre to become a footballer. But his dad is pushing him. By now Emre is sleeping for football and waking for football. He is a fan of Barcelona, whose games he watches on t.v. He tells his friends in his village that one day he will wear a Barcelona uniform.
The 29th of March 1990 is a big day for little Emre because at this date he became a licensed footballer for Zeytinburnuspor as an amateur. In those years the people that watched Emre said he used his left leg well, but he didn’t like running.
But it doesn’t take long for someone to spot Emre, this someone happens to be Salih Bulgurlu a trainer who works for Galatasaray. Bulgurlu, who loved Emre like his grandson, noticed his talent, and gave him special training. Bulgurlu, who trained the likes of Bulent Under, Mufit Erkasap, Cuneyt Tanman, Bulent Kormaz, Suat and Okan looked after Emre for 4 years. He taught him all the basic techniques. Emre’s basic training is strong and this gets him far in matches. At the age of 12, in Istanbul, every man who understands football is watching Emre.
The one who discovered Emre for Galatasaray was Bulent Under, a close friend of Fatih Terim’s.
He went to Bulgurlu and said, “Wait and see, in two years this boy will play in Europe, give him to us” he pleaded this many times.
After an adventurous transfer, Emre became officially a galatasaray player in 1995. At the time Salih Bulgurlu would pick him up from school, take a train to Florya to the training grounds and after the session was over he would bring him home.
In those days Emres biggest dream was to transfer to Europe. He would always ask Bulent what he had to do to go to Europe. Bulent is unenthusiastic on the matter of Europe, he wants Emre to graduate from school and he gets Emre's aunt to teach him English. At one point Emre goes on an English course with Okan and Arif. This comes in very useful 2 years later when he is playing at the champion’s league.
Emre is slowly getting more and more popular and famous at Galatasaray. In the first days he would get the train from Zeytinburnu to Florya, but now he would skip lessons and take a taxi. In 1998 when he turns 18, he gets his driving license and buys his first car. It is a Mercedes A-140. But then his manager, Fatih Terim comes to him. Because he dosen’t want Emre to become bigheaded, he takes the keys to the Mercedes and forbids him to drive it. Emre reunites with his car at the end of the season.
At the end of the season 96-97 Galatasaray are playing Besiktas, the score is 2-2 and the game is nearly over, Emre scores on the 83rd minute and gala win the game ending up champions of the season. After the match Fatih Terim sees Emre with a Rolex watch on his wrist worth £4,000. “You haven’t bought a house for your family, and you’re going around wearing expensive watches, aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” He shouts at him. Emre’s eyes are filling up and he says shakily, “The watch is Arif’s, he gave it to me as a present for scoring the goal against besiktas”
Terim is very sorry and says “Well done to Arif! We should have thought of that!”
Emre buys a house for his family in 1999 and they move to Florya.
As Emre was getting more and more successful, he lives the most hurtful time of his life on the 29th October 2000. At 5.30 in the morning he is going to training with his friends at the Belgrad woods, while he is driving, he sees a car, he tries to drive around it, but he hits it. Inside the car was a man that worked as a cleaner for the Gunes Hotel. The man dies, and Emre is absolutely devastated, he is in pain. The crash is an accident and Emre does not have to go to prison. Emre promises to help the workers family, people believed that he just said this for the media, but Emre has kept to his promise, and he will never forget it.
Fatih Terim on Emre
One morning we had a training session in Florya. In those days Okan was a soldier in the army, and he was Emre’s adopted big brother. Whatever he said Emre would do it and he would never do any different. They are both late for training, Emre comes in 2 minutes before and I ask him where he was. He said he was very sorry but he couldn’t tell me. Then Okan came and said the same thing. But they hid that they were together. I found out that, that day Okan had got permission to leave the army grounds and Emre had gone to pick him up, but when they didn't let Okan out early, Emre had waited for him, he didn’t tell me this because he knew that I would tell Okan off. I liked this closeness between them, but I still put Emre out of the team line up for the next game.
Emre had a big role in the Uefa league. I cannot forget the red card he got in the Leeds match. We were ahead and Leeds had only ten men. Then Emre went and kicked a Leeds player, maybe he didn’t touch him, but the referee was ready to send one of us off. When he walked off, I pushed him on the back of his neck. I got a lot of critism for this action, but at that moment, I told him that I brought to light that the referee was right, the audience was right and he was wrong. He was upset, but he accepted it.
.......
(This article was taken from http://sengur.8m.com. Thankyou to Aysel for her wonderful translation - very much appreciated!)
The car accident
In regards to the car accident mentioned above, the following is the correct information regarding the events that happened on that day. This information is taken from a press conference that Emre did shortly after the accident and is translated by Yagmur..
The accident occurred two years ago on October 24th, 2000.
Emre was driving on the E5 motorway, otherwise known as the 'Europeway'.
Emre was on his way to the "Eyüp Camii", a well known mosque in Istanbul/Eyüp after spending times with friends in the Belgrad Woods.
The man in the accident was Kadir Cetin, who crossed the motorway instead of going over the pedestrian bridge.
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