Hamit Altıntop

Hamit Altıntop (born December 8, 1982 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany) is a Turkish national footballer.

Hamit Altintop is considered as one of the best players in Turkey and one of the best midfielders in the German Bundesliga. He is blessed with blistering pace and an eye for goal. He is known by his teammates for his powerful long range shots, which rarely miss the goal. Altintop is a versatile midfielder and can play either in defence or as a striker. He is known to score often even though he hardly ever plays as a striker, as shown when he played for Schalke and so far with Bayern Munich. Aside from his striking abilities, he has spectacular tackling and defending abilities. It isn't unusual to see Altintop run back to his goal line to help his fellow defenders of penetrating the ball from their opponents. He is also known to be a superb assister, usually creating accurate crosses.

He is the identical twin brother of footballer Halil Altıntop.

Schalke
Hamit started his professional career in local German club Wattenscheid in 2000 along with his brother. As successful performances grabbed the attention of bigger clubs, Hamit was transferred to Schalke 04 in 2003, where he played in a primarily defensive midfield role. Hamit played in the Champions League, scoring a wonderful goal against AC Milan and he also played in the semi-finals of the UEFA cup. In the 2006-2007 summer transfer window, Schalke signed his brother Halil from FC Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern were relegated on the final day of the 2005-2006 season. Schalke came second in the Bundesliga, only pipped by VfB Stuttgart by 2 points.

Bayern Munich
Hamit has joined Bayern Munich for the start of the 2007/2008 season on a free transfer. Hamit Altıntop made a debut for Bayern Munich when the Bavarians played Brazilian champions Sao Paulo FC in the Hong Kong Stadium. Bayern Munich went on to win the game 2-1 after a spectacular free-kick goal from the Turkish international. He scored yet another spectacular goal from 30 meters with his strong left shot against Werder Bremen in the Liga-Pokal. He assisted Luca Toni with a spectacular cross and scored on his first Bundesliga game for Bayern Munich with a superb right foot shot against last season's third finisher Werder Bremen. The game had ended a 4-0 victory for the Bavarians. His second goal for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga came against Hannover 96 in the dying minutes when he received the ball from Ze Roberto and burst through the middle of the field, dribbling past four opponents, and notching Bayern Munich a 3-0 win over Hannover 96.

Honours

 * German Super Cup: 2007