İlhan Mansız (born 10 August 1975) is a German-born Turkish former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is also a competing figure skater. He is of Crimean Tatar descent. Playing career Club career Mansız gained international recognition at Istanbul's Beşiktaş J.K., and was later acquired by the Vissel Kobe football club in Japan. After his Japan journey, he signed a contract with Hertha BSC, but, because of his injury, he never had a chance to play for the first team. His contract was cancelled due to a clause in the contract saying that if his knee was injured again, they would release him. After his short stint with Hertha BSC, İlhan signed a one-year contract with Turkish club Ankaragücü. He was slowly but surely coming back from his plague of injuries and helping Ankaragücü in the Turkcell Super League. Before the 2006–07 season, he declared his decision to retire from football. As of 2007 there were rumors that he was getting training in Los Angeles, US, to make a comeback to football. These rumors are revealed by İlhan Mansız and he declared to sign contract with Ankaragücü again. However, this final comeback attempt was abandoned before the 2007–08 season, as he announced his retirement. After a car accident in 2007, it seemed the career of İlhan Mansız had ended. In July 2009, after seven knee operations, he tried to make a comeback by training with German second-division side TSV 1860 Munich. International career İlhan made his debut for Turkey as a substitute during their final group-stage qualifier against Moldova in October 2001. The speedy striker earned his way onto coach Şenol Güneş' squad on the strength of an outstanding 2001–02 season for Beşiktaş, when he led the Süper Lig in scoring and helped the squad to a third-place finish. The best goal of his career came in the 2002 FIFA World Cup quarter final against Senegal. He came on as a substitute for Hakan Şükür in the 67th minute, and netted a golden goal in the 94th minute to send Turkey through to the last four of the competition, in which they ended up taking third place. This was the last time where the golden goal was used in World Cup for extra-time matches. In the third place game İlhan Mansız assisted Hakan Şükür to score the fastest goal ever in a World Cup finals match, and went