Tanju Çolak is a retired Turkish

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 footballer, who played as a striker.

Club career

He made his debut for Samsun Yolspor. From there he was transferred to Samsunspor

Samsunspor

Samsunspor is a professional Turkish football club located in the city of Samsun. The club was formed through a merger of five clubs: 19 Mayıs, Akınspor, Fener Gençlik, Samsunspor, and Samsunspor Galatasaray. The club colours are red and white, and they play their home matches at Samsun 19 Mayıs...

 in 1981 where he was the top scorer in both the 1985–86 and 1986–87 seasons. Çolak then moved to Galatasaray

Galatasaray S.K. (football team)

Galatasaray Anonim Şirketi is a Turkish football club, part of the Galatasaray S.K. multi-sport club of Istanbul. Galatasaray is a major sports club in Turkey, holding 17 Turkish Super League titles and the highest number of Turkish Cups....

 in the end of 1986–87 season. He was the top scorer in Europe with 39 goals in the 1987–88 season. At the same time, he was awarded the European Golden Boot

European Golden Boot

The European Golden Shoe, formerly known as the European Golden Boot, is an association football award presented each season to the leading goalscorer in league matches from the top division of every European national league...

 given by France Football

France Football

France Football is a French bi-weekly magazine containing football news from all over the world. It's one of the most reputable sports publications in Europe, mostly because of their photographic reports and accurate statistics of the big European Cup matches, and extensive coverage of the European...

. He is the only Turkish footballer to date to win this award. Çolak became the top scorer again in the 1991–92 season, and transferred to rivals Fenerbahçe at the end of the season.

He had a lifetime total of 240 goals and took over the title of top goal scorer in the Turkish Super League

Turkcell Super League

The Süper Lig is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system. It is one of the top leagues in the UEFA confederation and the winner of the competition automatically qualifies for the UEFA Champions League...

 by breaking the legendary record of Metin Oktay

Metin Oktay

Metin Oktay nicknamed the Uncrowned King by Galatasaray fans, was a legendary Turkish footballer and one of the most successful goalscorers in Turkey....

. He had scored the most goal with 240 goals at only 9 seasons, which were 1982–83 and between the 1985–93 seasons. His record was broken by Hakan Şükür

Hakan Sükür

Hakan Şükür is a retired Turkish footballer who played as a striker. He spent the majority of his professional career with Galatasaray, being a three-time Gol Kralı , representing the club in three different spells and winning a total of 14 major titles.Şükür represented Turkey a...

 in 2007–08 season at 17 seasons. Çolak, dubbed "Bay Gol" (Mr. Goal), finished his career at İstanbulspor with a legacy as a good striker who had his career damaged by criminal scandals.

During and after his time as a striker, he set the standards to which every Turkish forward

Striker

Forwards, also known as strikers, are the players on a team in association football who play nearest to the opposing team's goal, and are therefore principally responsible for scoring goals...

 is held. His positioning and finishing abilities were comparable only to the best scorers of all time, however, due to the shortness of his career, and the ultimate lack of success of both Turkish club and national teams caused him to be relatively unknown outside Turkey.

International career

Çolak played for the Turkish national team

Turkey national football team

The Turkey national football team represents Turkey in association football and is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Turkey. They are affiliated with UEFA...

, where he was capped 31 time, scoring 9 goals.

Çolak earned the Golden Shoe in Europe during his career at Galatasaray and is the only Turkish

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 player to achieve this.

Personal life

In January 1994, he began a prison sentence of four years and eight months for illegally smuggling a Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...

 car into Ankara

Ankara

Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....

.

He was deputy candidate of Beylikdüzü municipality for MHP in 2009, but wasn't elected.

He is a deputy candidate from the islamic rooted The Justice and Development Party

Justice and Development Party (Turkey)

The Justice and Development Party , abbreviated JDP in English and AK PARTİ or AKP in Turkish, is a centre-right political party in Turkey. The party is the largest in Turkey, with 327 members of parliament...

 (Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) of Turkish Parliament elections

Elections in Turkey

Turkey elects on the national level a legislature. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey has 550 members, elected for a four year term by a system based on proportional representation...

 which will be held in June 12th

Turkish general election, 2011

Turkey's 17th general election was held on 12 June 2011 to elect 550 new members of Grand National Assembly. They were Turkey's first non-early elections in 34 years.-Background:...

, 2011

Honours

Galatasaray

Galatasaray S.K. (football team)

Galatasaray Anonim Şirketi is a Turkish football club, part of the Galatasaray S.K. multi-sport club of Istanbul. Galatasaray is a major sports club in Turkey, holding 17 Turkish Super League titles and the highest number of Turkish Cups....

• Turkish Premier League: 1

1988

• Turkish Cup: 1

1991

Career achievements

• Lifetime goal total (240 in 252 matches) which was a Turkish league record for highest goals scored by a single player in the league. On 3 September 2007, this record was broken by Hakan Şükür
  Hakan Sükür
  Hakan Şükür is a retired Turkish footballer who played as a striker. He spent the majority of his professional career with Galatasaray, being a three-time Gol Kralı , representing the club in three different spells and winning a total of 14 major titles.Şükür represented Turkey a...
  
  . *Most goals in a season (39 in 1987–1988 at Galatasaray);
• Most goals in a match (6 in 1992–1993 at Fenerbahçe);
• 5 times top league scorer (1985–1986, 1986–1987, at Samsunspor – 1987–1988, 1990–1991 at Galatasaray – 1992–1993 at Fenerbahçe);
• European top scorer 3rd place (33 goals in 1985–1986 at Samsunspor);
• European top scorer 1st place (39 goals in 1987–1988 at Galatasaray);
• European top scorer 2nd place (31 goals in 1990–1991 at Galatasaray).