Sercan Yıldırım

Sercan Yıldırım — Biography

Sercan Yıldırım is a former forward who made his name early as Bursaspor's striker and won league titles with both Bursaspor and Galatasaray. He went into the club's history as the man who scored Bursaspor's first goal in the Champions League, and after retiring he went as far as the semi-final of Survivor 2026.

He started at Bursaspor's youth academy at 7 and was voted most valuable player at the Pepsi Cup tournament in London in 2006. He broke into the first team in 2007-08 and in 2008-09, wearing the number 9 shirt at 18, was the team's top scorer with 14 goals; Bursaspor turned down offers from Manchester United. Bursaspor won their first league title in 2009-10, and in the 2010-11 Champions League Yıldırım scored against Rangers to set a club first, with his shirt placed in the club museum. A move to Lokomotiv Moscow in March 2011 did not go through.

In 2011 he joined Galatasaray for €3 million plus Musa Çağıran, winning the league in 2011-12 and the Super Cup in 2012. He was later loaned to Sivasspor, Şanlıurfaspor and Balıkesirspor, returned to Bursaspor in 2015 and wore the shirt of Fatih Karagümrük in 2019. For the senior national team he made his debut against Azerbaijan on 2 June 2009, scored his first goal against Estonia on 5 September 2009 and won four caps.