Tanju Çolak (born 10 November 1963) is a Turkish former professional footballer who played as a forward.

Club career

Born in Samsun, Çolak made his debut for Samsun Yolspor. From there he was transferred to Samsunspor in 1981 where he was top scorer in both the 1985–86 and 1986–87 seasons. Çolak then moved to Galatasaray at the end of 1986–87 season. He was the top scorer in Europe with 39 goals in the 1987–88 season. At the same time, he was awarded the European Golden Boot given by France Football. He is the only Turkish footballer to date to win this award. Çolak became the top scorer again in the 1991–92 season, and transferred to Fenerbahçe at the end of the season. He had a lifetime total of 240 goals and took over the title of top goal scorer in the Turkish Super League by breaking the legendary record of Metin Oktay. He scored the most goal with 240 goals in only nine seasons, which were 1982–83 and between the 1985–93 seasons. His record was broken by Hakan Şükür in 2007–08 season after 17 seasons.

International career

Çolak played for the Turkey national team, where he was capped 31 time, scoring 9 goals.

Personal life

Tanju's younger brother, Yücel Çolak also was a professional footballer. In January 1994, he began a prison sentence of four years and eight months for illegally smuggling a Mercedes-Benz car into Ankara. He was deputy candidate of Beylikdüzü municipality for Nationalist Movement Party (Turkish: Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, abbreviated MHP) in 2009, but wasn't elected. He was a Justice and Development Party (Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, abbreviated AKP) candidate to the Turkish Parliament elections which was held in 12 June, 2011

Honours

Galatasaray Individual

Other career achievements