Nihat Kahveci
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Nihat Kahveci (2016)
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Nihat Kahveci | ||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 23 November 1979 | ||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Istanbul, Turkey | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Playing position | Forward | ||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||
| 1994–1996 | Esenler | ||||||||||||||
| 1996–1997 | Beşiktaş | ||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||
| 1997–2002 | Beşiktaş | 114 | (27) | ||||||||||||
| 2002–2006 | Real Sociedad | 133 | (58) | ||||||||||||
| 2006–2009 | Villarreal | 62 | (18) | ||||||||||||
| 2009–2011 | Beşiktaş | 34 | (3) | ||||||||||||
| Total | 343 | (106) | |||||||||||||
| National team | |||||||||||||||
| 2000–2010 | Turkey | 69 | (19) | ||||||||||||
| Teams managed | |||||||||||||||
| 2012– | Villarreal CF B (Ast. Manager) | ||||||||||||||
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Honours
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| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Nihat Kahveci (born 23 November 1979) is a Turkish former footballer.
Like most Turkish players, his shirt carries his first name, Nihat, rather than his family name, Kahveci. He married Pınar Kaşgören on 5 July 2003. Their daughter Selin was born in May 2008.
Nihat is a product of Beşiktaş's youth system and was discovered by Hürser Mustafa Cindir when Nihat played in Beşiktaş in the 1996–97 season. He joined the first team at Beşiktaş in the 1997–98 season when he was just 17, at the time John Toshack was the coach. Since then, Nihat became a key player.
In January 2002, Nihat was transferred to Real Sociedad for €5 million by then Beşiktaş coach Toshack. Nihat also joined his Turkish team-mate Tayfun Korkut in Spain.
He had his debut on January, 26 in a 3–1 loss against Celta de Vigo, coming on as a substitute in the 72nd minute for Xabi Alonso and played for 18 minutes.
His first goal came in a 2–2 draw against Rayo Vallecano on 24 February 2002. In the first half of the season, Nihat played 11 matches and scored one goal.
In 2002-03, his second season in Spain, Nihat scored a brace in the Basque derby, the opening match of the season, helping his team to win 4-2. He finished the season with 23 goals making him the league's joint-second highest scorer for the season behind Roy Makaay (29 goals) and tied with Ronaldo. That season, Real Sociedad finished second in the league that season, just two points behind Real Madrid., mostly thanks to a very fruitful strike partnership with Serbian forward Darko Kovačević, such that sports journalist Phil Ball nicknamed the pair "Little and Large", in reference to the height difference between the two (Nihat's height is 1.75 m and Kovačević's is 1.87 m). His consistent, good performances have led to interests from other clubs, to which Nihat turned a deaf ear.
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