User:Huligan0/Hakan Yakin

Hakan Yakin (Hakan Yakın; born 22 February 1977 in Basel) is a Swiss footballer. He currently plays for Swiss Super League club FC Luzern. He was member of the Swiss national team for eleven years.

He anouced his retirement from the Swiss national team on 4 October 2011.

Personal life
Hakan was born in Basel, Switzerland to Turkish parents. He grew up and went to school in suburban Münchenstein, Basel-Landschaft, just outside of Basel and close to the borders of France and Germany. He is the elder brother of international football player Murat Yakin (former member of the Swiss national football team), who is currently manager of the Swiss Swiss Super League club FC Luzern. His elder half-brother Ertan Irizik is also a former football professional. His surname is based on the Turkish word Yakın  (meaning close, adjacent ), however as he is a Swiss resident and citizen, the name which he uses is Yakin.

Club career
As a child Yakin played in the youth teams of his local side FC Concordia Basel. He signed his first professional contract with hometown club FC Basel in 1995. After two and a half years he transfered to Grasshopper-Club Zürich but could not set himself through. Therefore he was loaned to FC St. Gallen for the second half of the 1997-98 season. The loan was prolonged for a further six months, then Yakin returned to the Grasshoppers.

During January 2001 he transfered back to Basel. At the end of the 2001–02 season Yakin won the national Double with Basel and a year later won the Swiss Cup again. He recalls the 2002–03 Champions League Group B match on 12 November 2002 against Liverpool in St. Jakob-Park as the "match of his life". The game was drawn 3:3 and Yakin gave all three assists as Basel cruised to a 3:0 half time lead as they qualified, one point above Liverpool, for the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League second group stage.

His career was then overshadowed by some trouble regarding his club transfers, as his engagements outside Switzerland (Paris Saint-Germain, VfB Stuttgart, and Galatasaray ) were not accompanied by luck. In 2005–06, Yakin returned to Switzerland, joining BSC Young Boys.

Honours and Titels
Basel Galatasaray Young Boys Individual
 * Swiss League Champion: 2002
 * Swiss Cup winner: 2002, 2003
 * Uhrencup Winner: 2003
 * Turkish Cup Winner: 2005
 * Uhrencup Winner: 2007
 * Player of the Year: 2003, 2008
 * Swiss League top goal scorer: 2008, 24 goals