Cihan Kaptan

Cihan Kaptan — Biography

Cihan Kaptan (born 4 March 1989 in Wuppertal, West Germany) is a German retired footballer of Turkish descent. His full name is Cihan Kaan Kaptan, and he holds both Turkish and German citizenship.

Kaptan began playing in the youth ranks of Wuppertaler SV Borussia before signing with Bayer 04 Leverkusen's D-Youth team in 1996, spending twelve years at the club. With Bayer Leverkusen he won the German A-Youth championship in 2007, beating Bayern Munich 2-1 in the final, and the youth German Cup in 2008 with a 3-1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, as well as two West German youth titles. He then moved to Süper Lig club Bursaspor, where he made only two Turkish Cup appearances in a year and a half before joining Borussia Dortmund's reserve side in January 2010, making his professional debut on 7 February 2010 against Kickers Offenbach in the 3. Liga. He later played for Fatih Karagümrük, the reserve team of SSV Jahn Regensburg and Ofspor.

A defensive midfielder standing 1.76 m tall, Kaptan represented Germany at under-17, under-18, under-19 and under-20 level, earning his first under-20 cap against Turkey's under-20 side in Kuşadası, and played as a midfielder for Germany's squad at the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup.