Bilal Yalcinkaya

The 87th minute of a Round of 16 tie against the United States is the moment that put Bilal Yalcinkaya on the map. Germany won it 3–2, he scored the goal that settled it, and the run ended with the country lifting the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup. He came off the bench again in the quarter-final against Spain. Across 2022 and 2023 he won eight caps at U17 level and scored four times — a return that says as much about his role in that side as the medal does.

The path to it began close to home. He joined FC Süderelbe as a six-year-old, spent two years at FC St. Pauli, then moved to the Hamburger SV academy in 2017 and stayed for nearly a decade. From 2024 he was a regular for Hamburger SV II in the Regionalliga Nord, where he made 45 appearances and scored eight goals over two seasons — steady football, but not the step up into the senior side at HSV.

That step came elsewhere. On 28 May 2026, SC Verl announced his signing on a free transfer, with the contract running from 1 July. No fee changed hands; the €200,000 figure that circulated at the time was his market value rather than a transfer cost.

The start at Verl has been slow. In the 2026/27 season he has four appearances to his name — three in the 3. Liga and one in the DFB-Pokal — without a goal or an assist. The minutes to go with the number 10 have yet to arrive.