Kerem Demirbay

Kerem Demirbay — Biography

Kerem Demirbay is a German professional footballer of Turkish descent, born on 3 July 1993 in Herten, who plays as a midfielder. He came through the youth ranks at Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund, then continued at SG Wattenscheid 09 before being promoted to Dortmund's reserve side in the third-tier 3. Liga in 2012. After a move to Hamburg, he had loan spells at Kaiserslautern in 2014-15 and at Fortuna Düsseldorf in 2015-16, where he was banned for five matches and apologised after making a sexist remark to referee Bibiana Steinhaus.

He joined Hoffenheim in 2016 and Bayer Leverkusen in 2019, then moved to Galatasaray in 2023, winning the Süper Lig twice and the Turkish Cup once. He signed for Eyüpspor in 2025 and for Kasımpaşa in January 2026. Although he initially chose to represent Turkey at youth level, he switched to Germany in 2017 and was part of the squad that won that year's Confederations Cup. Nicknamed 'Dayı' after a television character he is said to resemble, he is married to Melina Demirbay.