Tuncay finalised a £5,000,000 deal from Middlesbrough at the end of August and made his debut when coming on as a substitute during the win over Sunderland.

The 27-year-old signed for the Potters just hours after the Club secured a deal for his Riverside colleague Robert Huth

Tuncay brings a wealth of international experience to the Britannia Stadium, having been capped over 65 times for Turkey.

He began his professional football career with his home town club Sakaryaspor and with a goal in every two games for the second tier outfit, Turkish giants Fenerbahce were alerted about his services and at the age of 20 he signed a five year deal with the club.

He became well known on these shores and in particular the North West in the 2004/05 season when he scored a hat-trick against Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League.

A World Cup Qualifier hat-trick followed for Turkey and so did the plaudits from around the footballing world but he would stay loyal to his contact before eventually moving to Middlesbrough on a Bosman free transfer in the summer of 2007.

He scored eight goals for Boro in his first season with the club, including the winner against Arsenal and another at Liverpool, before playing in four games for his nation at EURO 2008 in Austria & Switzerland.

As the Potters can bare witness to, he began last season well on Teeside and scored the winner for the hosts when the two sides met at the Riverside Stadium in August 2008.

He then added a further seven to his tally in a struggling Middlesbrough side that were eventually relegated to the Coca-Cola Championship.

Turkey Head Coach Fatih Terim was still impressed with him though and awarded him the captaincy of his country.

* Sanli is actually Tuncay's surname, but as with other Turkish footballers he is known instead by his first name (i.e. Tugay Kerimoglu and Emre Belozoglu)

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