After a glittering playing career, former Turkish footballer Hakan Sukur has opened up on losing it all and his new life in the US after troubles with the Turkish president.
The 48-year-old scored over 300 goals at club level during spells with the likes of Galatasaray, Inter, Parma, Torino and Blackburn Rovers, while bagging 51 goals in 112 caps for Turkey.
He also holds the record for the fastest goal in a World Cup game after his effort against South Korea in 2002 after just 10 seconds, but he has suffered a sad fall from grace in his homeland.
After troubles with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he has now left Turkey and has revealed how is forced to make a living from scratch for him and his family after losing everything.
As reported by La Repubblica, he was accused of being involved in the coup in 2016, but he has strenuously denied those accusations and has revealed how it has effected him since.
“Coup? What would have been my role? Nobody can explain it,” he is quoted as saying in the report above. “I have always done legal things. I’m not a traitor or a terrorist. I am an enemy of the government , but not of the state or the nation, I love my country.
“He took everything away from me, I have nothing left.
“Thanks to the party, my popularity had increased. Then, when the hostilities started, everything changed. I received constant threats after every declaration. They threw things at my wife’s boutique, my children were harassed on the street. My father was imprisoned and all the assets were confiscated.”
The report goes on to add that Sukur has made his living in the US by driving for Uber and selling books, and so there are no doubts he has fallen on hard times since the troubles back home began.