Muhammed Kerem Akturkoglu (born 21 October 1998) is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as a left winger and attacking midfielder for Super Lig club Galatasaray and the Turkey national team.
Akturkoglu began his career with Basaksehir's youth academy, and was loaned to Bodrumspor. He then spent various seasons in the amateur TFF Third League, before breaking out with Erzincanspor in the 2019–20 season scoring 20 goals in 34 games.
Akturkoglu transferred to Galatasaray on 2 September 2020. He made his professional debut with Galatasaray in a 1–1 Super Lig tie with Kayserispor on 23 November 2020.
On 16 August 2021, Akturkoglu was involved in a physical altercation with teammate Marcao during a game against Giresunspor.
Akturkoglu became the champion in the Super Lig in the 2022–23 season with the Galatasaray team. Defeating Ankaragucu 4–1 away in the match played in the 36th week on 30 May 2023, Galatasaray secured the lead with 2 weeks before the end and won the 38th championship in its history.
After Wilfried Zaha has joined Galatasaray, Kerem lost his favourite inverted winger position to Zaha and manager Buruk started to position him behind Mauro Icardi. However Kerem's performance got indirectly affected by playing at that position by taking turns with Dries Mertens.
On 8 August, 2023, he scored his first goal of the season in a 0–3 away win against Olimpija in a UEFA Champions League qualifying round game. On 16 August, 2023, in a 4–2 home game win against Samsunspor, Akturkoglu made an outstanding performance by scoring two goals and providing one assist. In his first 10 competitive matches he scored 4 goals and provided 5 assists in total.
On 20 September 2023, he made his UEFA Champions League debut against Copenhagen. On 3 October 2023, he scored his first goal in UEFA Champions League group stage in a 3–2 away game win against Manchester United at Old Trafford. On 29 November 2023, in a 3–3 home game draw against Manchester United, he came in as a substitute and scored the last goal of the game against Manchester United. The goal was nominated and later awarded as the Goal of the Week of matchday 5 of the UEFA Champions League.
Akturkoglu made his debut for Turkey national team on 27 May 2021 in a friendly against Azerbaijan. |
