Former national team player, Onur Doğan has announced his retirement from football aged 37. The long-time Tatung FC striker made history after becoming the first-ever naturalized player for the mens national team, and was among the best goal scorers in Taiwanese football for most of the 2010’s.

A youth team player with Turkish side, Çanakkale Dardanelspor, Doğan met his future wife, Chu Ting-hsuan, who had come to Turkey with her family. The two stayed in touch via social media and Doğan eventually followed her to Taiwan, where they married in 2009. By then, a knee injury had derailed Doğan’s chances of turning professional with Çanakkale, now in the Super Lig, the top division of Turkish football.

Within a few months of arriving, Doğan had managed to managed to rehabilitate his knee and was offered a contract by Taiwanese club, Tatung FC. From 2010-2014, Doğan scored an amazing 50 goals in 56 appearances, which led to the CTFA naturalizing the striker.

After making his debut in 2014, Doğan would then become a regular in the national team over the next five years, playing 27 times for his adopted country and scoring 6 goals. He played his final game for the Blue Wings in 2019 during the second round of Asian qualification for the 2022 World Cup as Taiwan were eliminated in by Jordan.

During those years, Doğan also carved out another niche by becoming one of the first Taiwanese players to play in China when he signed with second division side, Meizhou Hakka in 2016. In two seasons at the Wuhan-based club, the striker played 48 games, and scoring 9 goals.

By 2018, Doğan returned to Tatung, where he scored 30 goals in 31 games across another two seasons before late-career spells with Taichung Futuro and a one final run with Tatung before moving down to the lower leagues. In total, Doğan played 118 games in Taiwan’s top flight, scoring 77 goals and wining the league three times, all with Tatung.

After hanging up his boots, Doğan will remain active with Taiwanese football and has already announced he will be transitioning into coaching.

Photo Credit: Chinese Football Association