Memorable players in the history of World Cup: Turkish Rüştü Reçber

One of the best goalkeepers who defended the Turkish national team's goal, he contributed with the golden generation to his country's qualification for the 2002 World Cup finals in Korea and Japan and ranked third.

Rustu Recber was born on May 10, 1973, in Korkutli, Antalya, Turkey.

He started playing football in the Korkutli district of Antalya, where he grew up, and in 1985 he moved to the Dumspur amateur club and started playing as a striker before switching to a goalkeeper, taking advantage of his height (1.87 meters).

In August 1991, he signed a contract with Antalyaspor club, and on April 11, 1993, he took his place as the goalkeeper and did not concede any goal, and at the end of the season he signed a contract with Besiktas, but he had a traffic accident with one of his colleagues in the Levent Techni team on May 13, 1993, his colleague died while he sustained injuries that forced him to remain in intensive care for some time.

After that, he moved to the Turkish club Fenerbahçe, but he remained as a reserve throughout the season

In the following season, Rustu had the opportunity to prove his competence when the first goalkeeper of Fenerbahçe was injured, and in the following nine seasons he took his place in the nets of Fenerbahçe and the Turkish national team, during which time Rushtu won the Turkish Premier League title four times.

After his brilliant performance in the 2002 World Cup with the Turkish national team, he received several offers from local and international clubs, including Italian Calcio clubs, AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Spanish La Liga clubs Barcelona and Valencia.

He also received offers to play with English clubs Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal and was about to sign with the latter, but a dispute with the team manager led to the cancellation of the deal, to sign a contract with the Spanish league giant in Barcelona.

Rustu won several individual titles at the Turkish, European, and international levels, the most important of which was being chosen as the third-best goalkeeper in the world in 2002, and one of the three best goalkeepers in the world in 2003.

He participated with the Turkish national team in qualifying for the quarterfinals of the European Nations Cup 2000, and the semi-finals of the same competition in the 2008 edition, and also contributed to the team achieving third place in the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan.

As part of his participation with Turkish clubs, he won the Turkish Premier League titles with Fenerbahçe in 1996, 2001, 2005, and 2007, and the Ataturk Cup in 1998, while with Besiktas he won the Turkish Super League in 2009 and won the Turkish Cup with him in 2009 and 2011.

Rüştü's fame was not only due to his outstanding performance in the 2002 World Cup, the "incantation " he used to make him the talk of the world at the time, when Rüştü appeared in the Brazil match, putting something black under his eyes.