Hamit Altintop

Born in Germany, to Turkish parents, Hamit Altintop is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder. An extremely versatile midfielder, Altintop is amongst the new breed of work-horse midfielders who can play anywhere on the pitch. A fantastic tackler, Altintop can also create attacks through the middle or send in crosses from either flank with equal ease.

Hamit is the older of twin brother Halil, by ten minutes, also a professional footballer.

Hamit Altintop began his playing career at the youth team in Schwarz-Weiss Gelsenkirchen, in 1991. After playing with the team for a single season, he moved to TuS Rotthausen where he spent another 5 years of his youth career.

In 1997, Altintop moved to Wattenscheid 09 where he stayed in the youth squad until 2000. In 2000, he got his professional contract and Altintop began his three season tenure at Wattenscheid. In those three seasons, Altintop made over 75 league appearances for the team, scoring 12 goals.

In 2003, Altintop made his big move to Schalke 04. Beginning with the Schalke B-team, Altintop moved onto better things with the first team squad and, soon, became a regular with the team. Over 4 years, he made massive contributions to the team and helped Schalke rise to second place in the league, in 2006. Playing over 110 games in 4 seasons, Altintop scored 8 goals.

At the end of the 2006-07 season, Altintop drew admiration from the ranks of Bayern Munich, and chose to not renew his contract at Schalke. He moved to Bayern Munich for a free transfer.

Scoring on debut, for FC Hollywood, Altintop gained notoriety for scoring flamboyant goals. He became one of the most important players in the Munich squad and was a regular part of their starting lineup.

A part of the 2007-08 and 2009-10 double-winning teams, Altintop has played over 60 games for Bayern Munich, scoring 7 times in the process.

At the international level, Altintop turned out, for Turkey, for the first time in 2004. Since then, he has played over 55 internationals and scored 6 goals. His goal against Kazakhstan, in a Euro 2012 qualifier, was named as the Goal of the Year, for 2010 and won him the FIFA Puskas Award.