Eren Derdiyok (born 12 June 1988) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a striker. He is a former Swiss international. Early life Derdiyok was born in Basel, Switzerland, into a Kurdish family from Turkey. He also holds Turkish citizenship. Club career Old Boys Basel From an early age Derdiyok played his youth football for the Basel local football club BSC Old Boys Basel and advanced through the ranks. In summer 2005 he advanced from their U-18 team to the first team, who played in the Swiss 1. Liga the fourth tier of Swiss football. He immediately became regular player and scored 10 goals in just 18 appearances in the first half of the season. In the second round of the 2005–06 Swiss Cup OB were drawn at home in the Schützenmatte against FC Basel. The match took place on 22 October and Basel walked away with a 6–1 victory. It was Derdiyok who scored the consolation goal. Basel Basel's head caoch Christian Gross noticed Derdiyok's goal scoring instinct and persuaded him to join the club for their 2006–07 season. Derdiyok joined Basel's U-21 team, who played in the third tier. Under team coach Heinz Hermann, the striker scored 10 goals in 17 appearances in just six months. Derdiyok was then called up by Gross into Basel's first team. After playing in five test games, in which he netted six times, he played his domestic league debut for the club, coming on as substitute in the 82nd minute, in the away game in the Stadion Wankdorf on 11 February 2007 as Basel won 3–0 against Young Boys. The next match for Basel was a transfer supplement match against Derdiyok's former club Old Boys which Basel won 6–1, with Derdiyok scoring a hat-trick within less than an hour. He scored his first league goal for his new club on 14 April in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park as Basel played a 3–3 draw with St. Gallen. At the end of the 2006–07 Super League season Basel were runners-up, one point behind championship winners Zürich. During the second half of the season Derdiyok was used mainly as a substitute, playing only one full game, and averaging a total of 220 play minutes. In the Swiss Cup Basel advanced to the final, where they played Luzern. Derdiyok was in the starting eleven, substituted out after 58 minutes, but the game