Former Lille striker Burak Yılmaz announces retirement | OneFootball

Amid a spate of retirements this past weekend, former Lille striker Burak Yılmaz has also announced that he will hang up his boots, having left Dutch side Fortuna Sittard at the end of the campaign.

The Turkish international is best known to French audiences as one of the key players in Lille’s title-winning season of 2021, scoring 16 goals as Christophe Galtier’s men pipped Paris Saint-Germain to the Ligue 1 title. Over the course of his two seasons with Les Dogues, he found the net 25 times in all competitions.

Previously, he had spent the majority of his career playing for Turkey’s leading clubs – Trabzonspor, Beşiktaş, Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe – punctuated by a two-season spell in China with Beijing Guoan.

Yılmaz has also indicated that he intends to go into management, and has been studying for his coaching badges for the past year. He says he has been in contact with his former coaches Christophe Galtier and Roberto Mancini, and that the latter had even invited him to Italy.

GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin