Imagine Harry Kane receiving death threats, being exiled and going to live in the United States as a cab driver.
That is the scenario Turkish goal-scoring hero Hakan Sukur has found himself in after a dramatic turn in his life.
The former striker is his country’s highest-ever goalscorer and became a national hero in 2002 when he led the Crescent Stars to the semi-finals of the World Cup.
To reach that stage, Sukur made history when he scored the fastest-ever goal at the World Cup, netting against hosts South Korea after just 10.8 seconds on their way to a 3-2 victory.
It saw him win a medal for State Medal of Distinguished Service, one of just three civil state decorations of Turkey and his career saw spells at Blackburn, Inter Milan and Galatasaray.
It was at the Turkish club where he enjoyed his best form over three stints, scoring a total of 295 goals in 545 total appearances, as well as netting 51 times for his country in 112 caps.
But after hanging up his boots in 2008, Sukur turned to politics, a decision that would cost him everything.
He can never set foot in his country again as he would be charged with rebelling against the government, facing life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
His father was jailed and he would never see him again, allegedly dying of cancer.
And it all began in 2011 when Sukur was elected as a Member of Parliament to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, as part of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which was founded by Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Sukur would go on to resign from the party and serve as an independent MP after disagreements within the AKP while also growing closer to Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.
After Erdogan became president in 2014, he became less and less tolerant of criticism on any medium and in February 2016, Sukur was charged with insulting him on Twitter.
The ex-striker had been vocal over the government shutting down schools run by Gulen and his movement but just months later, all hell broke loose.
In July, factions of the Turkish army would try to overthrow the government and detain Erdogan in a coup d’etat that would ultimately fail.
After the Turkish government blamed Gulen and his movement, which was then designated as a terrorist organisation, a warrant for Sukur’s arrest was issued which led to Turkey’s all-time best player fleeing the country.
“I moved to the United States, initially running a cafe in California, but strange people kept coming into the bar,” he told Welt am Sonntag in 2020. “Now I drive for Uber and I sell books.
“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.”
Sukur has had everything taken from him in Turkey, including his businesses, his houses and ba
The name Sukur is now so tainted in Turkey that even at the World Cup in Qatar, a commentator working for state-ran broadcaster TRT was sacked at half-time for merely mentioning his incredible 2002 record.
But despite his exile, the 51-year-old still believes there is a future for him in his country and has hope of returning one day.
In 2018, he told the New York Times: “It’s my country; I love my people, even though their ideas about me are distorted by controlled media.”
Source: Callum Vurley
D-Ample Newspaper 