Salih Özcan

With the exception of a six-month loan at VfL Wolfsburg (August to December 2024), Salih Özcan has been with Borussia Dortmund since 2022. Since his return, Özcan has made 11 Bundesliga appearances for BVB in the second half of 2024/25 (three starts, eight substitute appearances) and won an impressive 53 percent of his duels. “Salih is someone who is not afraid to put his body on the line and uncompromisingly gives everything for his team to succeed,” said an enthusiastic BVB sporting director Sebastian Kehl.

Özcan has scored only two goals in 166 Bundesliga games, both for Cologne in late 2021. “I could be a bit more dangerous in front of goal,” he told the BORUSSIA members’ magazine. “It’s not the most important thing in my position, and I am of course just as happy about every win even if I don't score. But there is some room for improvement.” By contrast, his "escape rate" of 72 percent in his first BVB season was one of the best in the league: He was able to find his way out of several situations where he was under pressure by keeping the ball in Black & Yellow hands.

At BVB, Salih Özcan linked up with Nico Schlotterbeck and Karim Adeyemi – two colleagues “with whom I won the U21 European Championship in Slovenia in 2021. That was a nice thing for us.”

Salih Özcan was born to Turkish parents in Cologne on 11 January 1998 and joined his first club as an eight-year-old. However, in his very first year at SC West, he caught the eye of the youth development scouts of 1. FC Köln and moved to Cologne after only one season in the summer of 2007. Shortly after his 18th birthday, he joined Cologne's Regionalliga side. But the highly-talented midfielder wasn't in the Regionalliga for long, as former head coach Peter Stöger selected Özcan, who was captain of the German U19 national team at the time, in the squad for a Bundesliga match for the first time on Matchday 2 of the 2016/17 season. The defensive midfielder got plenty of playing time, making 13 appearances in his first Bundesliga season. In 2017, Özcan was awarded the Fritz Walter gold medal by the German FA (DFB) awarded to the best young player of his year group.

In his life, Özcan had to decide not only between two national teams – Turkey and Germany – but also between two sports. He could also have enjoyed a respectable career as a wrestler. “I was good. It might not have been enough for the German Championship, but for decent results. And yet it was never a question that I might give up football for wrestling. And even my dad, who is now really a massive fan of wrestling and who I've even gone up against on the mat, would never have considered letting me drop football for wrestling.”

After a one-year loan at Holstein Kiel, Özcan secured a regular place in the starting eleven of 1. FC Cologne at the beginning of the 2020/21 season. kicker magazine described him as an "aggressive defensive or box to box midfielder with good passing skills, who can shut down opponents by acting like a wall in front of the back line." On 21 November 2021, he scored his first of two goals in the top tier in the match against Mainz 05. In the 2021/22 season, Özcan impressed not only as a midfield enforcer – in total he contested most duels of all Cologne players, winning a respectable 52 percent of them – but also going forward, with a passing success rate of 88 percent.

Özcan played for Germany's youth teams at all levels starting with the U15s and won the European Championship with the U19s in 2021, starting in the 1-0 win against Portugal in the final. In March 2022, he opted to play for Turkey, and is currently a first team member. He also represented Turkey at Euro 2024.