Turkey leave out legend Sukur from 26-man squad

National icon and goal scoring legend, Hakan Sukur, has been left out of Fatih Terim’s initial 26-man squad for this summer’s European Championships.

Galatasaray’s Sukur, now 36, made eight appearances in qualifying stages for Turkey, but was deemed surplus to requirements by Terim for the tournament in Austria and Switzerland.

Hakan Sukur has appeared 112 times for his country and has scored an impressive tally of 51 goals in those meetings. Turkey were the 2002 World Cup bronze medallists in South Korea/Japan.

Turkey initial 26-man squad:

Goalkeepers: Volkan Demirel (Fenerbahce), Rustu Recber (Besiktas), Tolga Zengin (Trabzonspor).

Defenders: Gokhan Gonul (Fenerbahce), Sabri Sarioglu (Galatasaray), Gokhan Zan (Besiktas), Ibrahim Kas (Besiktas), Emre Asik (Galatasaray), Servet Cetin (Galatasaray), Hakan Balta (Galatasaray), Ugur Boral (Fenerbahce).

Midfielders: Mehmet Aurelio (Fenerbahce), Mehmet Topal (Galatasaray), Emre Belozoglu (Newcastle), Tumer Metin (Larissa), Yildiray Basturk (Stuttgart), Hamit Altintop (Bayern Munich), Ayhan Akman (Galatasaray), Arda Turan (Galatasaray), Tuncay Sanli (Middlesbrough), Kazim Kazim (Fenerbahce), Gokdeniz Karadeniz (Rubin Kazan).

Forwards: Nihat Kahveci (Villarreal), Halil Altintop (Schalke), Semih Senturk (Fenerbahce), Mevlut Erding (Sochaux).