Bolat, Sinan

Club

Genk

At the age of 17, a young goalkeeper, a graduate of the Melo club, moved from Zonhoven to Genk . Before the start of the 2006/07 season, Sinan was transferred to the main team. He sat on the bench for almost the entire championship and only in the decisive match of the last 34th round was he given a chance to prove himself. The debut in adult football was not the most successful for the young goalkeeper, he missed 3 goals from Brussels players and Genk lost with a score of 1: 3 ^[3] .

The following season, the main goalkeeper of the team remained Logan Bayi . The Turkish goalkeeper played in only four matches, and in only two of them he went in the starting lineup and played for 90 minutes. The 2008/09 season, Sinan Bolat also began at Genk. However, for six months he did not spend a single minute on the field. In winter, a Turk whose contract ends in the summer was sold to the Liège Standard , for only 150 thousand euros ^[1] .

Standard (Liege)

With “Standard”, Bolat signed a contract for four and a half years ^[4] . The young goalkeeper was immediately included in the club's application for the UEFA Cup ^[5] . Bolat waited for the debut for his new team for almost 2 months, and only on February 26, 2009 did Standard Head coach Laszlo Bölöni entrust him with a place in the goal. Then, in the return match of the 1/16 finals of the UEFA Cup, Sinan played only the first half, in which he kept his goal intact, after which he was replaced by the main goalkeeper Roris Aragon during the break ^[6] . After this match, Sinan was again on the bench. Only on April 5 did he spend his debut match for Standard in the Belgian Championship . Then his club beat “ Germinal Beershot ” with a score of 3: 1 ^[7] . From this moment, the Turks became the main goalkeeper of the team. Before the last round, “Standard” had 74 points, and “ Anderlecht ” had the same score. Anderlecht confidently outplayed the former Bolat club Genk, and Standard faced a match with Ghent . At the very end of the first half, “Standard” scored thanks to a goal from Axel Witsel , the second half also went without goals, until in the 90th minute “Standard” got a penalty on their own goal ^[8] . Brian Ruiz came to a point, but Sinan Bolat rescued his team and hit a penalty, as a result, the Liège club won the match and caught up with Anderlecht on points. 2 matches were appointed for the championship. The first match ended in a draw with the score 1: 1 ^[9] , and in the second “Standard” won with a minimum score thanks to Axel Witsel's goal from the penalty spot ^[10] . Thus, the “Reds" for the second time in a row became the champions of Belgium ^[11] . In total, in his first season, Sinan Bolat played in 10 matches, in which he missed only 3 goals.

Sinan spent his second season in Liège as the main goalkeeper of the team. At the beginning of the season, Sinan won another trophy, in the match for the Super Bowl “Standard” beat his former club “Genk” with a score 2: 0. On September 16, 2009, in a match with London Arsenal , the goalkeeper made his debut in the Champions League ^[12] . In the match of the 6th round of the Champions League with AZ Sinan Bolat at the 95th minute of the match ran to a free kick and scored a goal with his head, this goal brought his team third place and a ticket to the Europa League ^[13] , and Bolat became the first goalkeeper to score goal in the Champions League match with the game ^[2] . In the Europa League, the Belgians passed the Austrian Red Bull and the Greek Panathinaikos , but failed to overcome Hamburg in the quarterfinals. In the championship, “Standard” performed not so well and took only 8th place.

The 2010/11 season was held for “Standard” without European cups, which allowed the club to focus on domestic draws. In the 11th round match of the Belgian championship with Genk, the goalkeeper received a yellow card for a foul against Jelle Vossen , and immediately after it a red card for talking with a judge already in the 33rd minute of the match ^[14] . Having missed one match, Sinan Bolat returned to the match of the 13th round with Brugge ^[15] . At the very end of the first half, the goalkeeper was injured in his right knee ^[16] , because of which he had to miss almost the entire remainder of the season. A few days after the match, Bolat underwent knee surgery ^[17] . Sinan Bolat held his first match after an injury only on March 12, 2011 in the 29th round of the championship against Charleroi ^[18] . Despite the absence of his main goalkeeper, “Standard” has already managed to get to the semifinal of the Belgian Cup . Sinan helped his club get through the Ghent in the semifinals, and beat Westerlo with a score of 2: 0. In the championship, the club took 6th place allowing you to take part in the playoffs for the championship. In the playoffs, the team performed successfully and took the final 2nd place, which allows the next season to begin the fight with the third round of the Champions League .

Team

Sinan Bolat defended the colors of Belgium at the level of youth teams. On his account 3 matches for the Belgian national team under 17 years spent in the qualifying tournament of the European Championship 2005 , and 7 matches for the Belgian national team under 19 years ^[19] . However, at the level of youth teams, Sinan decided to defend the colors of the Turkish national team , for which in 2009 he played 2 matches. Back in 2008, Sinan was in the application of the Turkish national team for the Toulon tournament , however, he spent all 3 matches of his national team on the bench.

Sinan received his first call to the Turkish national team in June 2009 for a match with the Azerbaijani national team . In that match, he never entered the field ^[20] . Soon, Sinan began to receive challenges for the matches of the qualifying tournament for the 2010 World Cup and the qualifying tournament of the European Championship in 2012 . But Sinan played his first match for the national team only on August 10, 2011 against the Estonian national team , which ended in a crushing victory for the Turks 3-0 ^[21] . Two months later, on October 11, the head coach of the Turkish national team, Guus Hiddink, released Sinan in the starting lineup in the last match of the qualifying tournament of the European Championship in 2012 with the Azerbaijani team. Bolat again missed goals and his team won with a score of 1: 0, having won a place in butt games ^[22] . In butt games, the Turks were on the Croatian national team . In the first match in Istanbul, Volkan Demirel defended the goal and the Turkish national team lost 0-3. In the second leg, Hiddink entrusted a place in the gate to Sinan and he again did not concede goals. However, the match ended with the score 0-0 ^[23] , which did not allow the Turks to reach the final stage.

Genk

• Belgian silver medalist: 2007

"Standard" (Liege)

• Champion of Belgium: 2009
• Belgian silver medalist: 2011
• Belgian Cup Winner: 2011
• Belgian Super Cup Winner: 2009
• Total: 3 trophies

As of March 1, 2012

Total: 6 matches / 4 goals conceded; 2 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses.

Total: 2 matches / 2 goals conceded; 1 draw, 1 loss.

Total: 3 matches / 4 goals conceded; 2 draws, 1 loss.

As of March 1, 2012

• Player profile on the official website of "Standard" (Fr.) . Archived on May 2, 2012.