Osman Uyanık

Osman Uyanık (born 3 October 1990 in Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian/Turkish professional footballer (soccer) that is a defender who signed for Denizlispor at the January 2010 winter transfer-window on a 3 + 2 year contract, however will join the squad in June 2010.

The Australian/Turkish defender was born and raised in Melbourne. Despite having numerous trips to Turkey before becoming professional, he sees Melbourne as his hometown. At the age of nine he began to play football (soccer) after being forced by his uncle. Aberfeldie was the primary school he was at which also had a soccer team in state level. Osman became a member of that side and played along side his longtime friend Francesco Stella, who now plays for AC Siena in Italy's Serie A. After having successful outcomes him and two other team-mates were linked in moving to Roma in Italy to be apart of Roma's A2 side. Osman quotes: 'Spending time in Italy was amazing, its definitely one of the top countries who play quality football not to mention the county having four worldcups. Moreover, Italy is known for defensive style of play and as a defender this benefited and taught me a lot in the real game. Over the five years spend in Italy, picking up the language wasn't too hard as well'. At the end of 2008 Osman returned to Melbourne to sit for university examinations, and successfully got into the Faculty of Business & Law. During this time he continued his football career with Horozspor which is a Turkish side based in Melbourne. Osman currently is studying at university and is fluent in Turkish, English and Italian. Former Turkish National Football team coach and Denizlispor coach, Ersun Yanal, has said in a recent interview: 'Osman is a player who reminds me of former Galatasaray captain Bülent Korkmaz. He has the same attitude, great leadership skills, able to moralise team-mates in the worse situation and of course is a defender".

Osman holds both Australian and Turkish passports meaning he can represent either country at National Team level if called up. Finally, the Turkish Super League side Denizlispor sealed the deal of making Osman and his friend Adem Aličević, both from Melbourne, apart of their team late December 2009. Osman now officially wears the jersey number 90 for Denizlispor however has asked to have number 20 (the loyalist number in Denizlispor) reserved for him from the beginning of the 2010/2011 season.