Arda Okan Kurtulan


Arda Okan Kurtulan is an Albanian professional footballer who plays for Turkish Süper Lig club Göztepe. Born in Turkey, he is a former youth international for Albania.

Career

Kurtulan was a youth product of Akşemsettin Parsellerspor in 2014 and had a stint with Göktürk Sarayspor in 2015 before returning to his first club. He moved to Erokspor's youth academy in 2017, and then joined Fenerbahçe's youth side in 2019. On 17 May 2021, he signed his first professional contract with Fenerbahçe for three years. He made his professional debut with Fenerbahçe as a late substitute in a 5–0 Süper Lig win over Yeni Malatyaspor on 21 May 2022.

International career

Born and raised in Turkey, Kurtulan is of Albanian descent through his grandparents, respectively from Breza, and Mitrovica. He was eligible to represent four countries on international level, either Albania, Kosovo, Turkey or North Macedonia with the latter he was part of the U19 and U21 teams and he with these teams played eleven matches and scored two goals.
On 10 November 2022, Kurtulan decided to represent Albania U21 and accept their call-up for the friendly matches against San Marino and Montenegro. His debut with Albania U21 came ten days after call-up in a friendly match against Montenegro after coming on as a substitute at 81st minute in place of Behar Ismaili.

Personal life

Kurtulan's father, Ramazan Kurtulan, was a semi-professional footballer who played in the TFF First League.