After conflict with Erdogan, famous Turkish football player of Albanian origin ends up as coffee shop

It's about the former prominent Turkish striker of Albanian origin, Hakan Shukur.

But what does the former Turkish champion do in a cafe in Palo Alto?

Shukur has been forced to abandon his homeland because of political beliefs, and above all the fact that he has openly expressed his support for Erdogan's enemy, Fetullah Gulen.

Shukur himself accepts this in an interview for “The York Times”, the first since the US violation in 2015, broadcasts the Albanian newspaper.

President Erdogan's government has issued an arrest warrant against him, while Father ended up in prison for almost a year. All his savings, including bank accounts, have been seized by the Turkish regime. Although he tried to get into politics in 2011, he was part of Erdogan's party.

From that moment on, any action I was doing caused by administrative problems and embarrassments of all nature”, he relates.

The fame he had easily helped him secure a seat in Parliament, but the fight Turkey's current president took against Gulen, whose successor was Shukur, forced the former Galatasarayt and Turkish National striker to resign.

If I had behaved differently, I would have had a better life. If I told them everything they wanted, I'd be a minister. But I already sell coffee! At least so I haven't lost the respect I've earned through the years” he shows

We remember that Hakan Shukur blew up in the world football arena in the early 2000s, where he made a team of Galatasaray and donated Turkey to third place in the South Korea and Japan World.