Interlacing is like a mountain, and this sentence has a certain truth even if it is placed in the sports circle. However, everything is absolute, in 2022, which is both a World Cup football match and a special year of the Winter Olympics, it is impossible to make football fans and Winter Olympic sports fans wonder if there is such a person who has participated in both the World Cup football tournament and the Winter Olympic Games. Coincidentally, there is indeed such a special person.
The star, Ilhan Mansis, is a famous Turkish striker who played in the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan. Born in Germany, he has dual German-Turkish citizenship, but his career began in Turkey. A year older than Brazilian star Ronald, he had the privilege of playing against Brazil twice at the World Cup in South Korea and Japan, and Ilhan became the archetype of turkey, the strongest team of that golden generation. His fame against Robert Carlos' "Rainbow Pass" during his match against Brazil became a classic moment in World Cup history. Robert Carlos could only prevent this brilliant pass with fouls.
Although Ilhan's career ended at the age of 31, this time he showed his extraordinary athletic talent. The beautiful moves are full of art and imagination, which may have been a big factor in Ilkhan's rapid transition to figure skating after ending his football career. Shortly after retiring in 2006, Ilhan met his sweetheart, a beautiful figure skater, Bestantigova, who began practicing figure skating with his girlfriend at the age of 33 and became a full member of the Turkish Olympic team.
In 2013, Ilkhan stood on the road to storming the Sochi Olympics with his girlfriend, when he was 38 years old. Ilkhan became the first athlete in the history of sport to compete in the FIFA World Cup and the Winter Olympics qualification tournaments. Unfortunately, he and his girlfriend failed to make it to the final round of the Winter Olympics and stopped qualifying. Although the ending was cruel, Ilhan had not even watched the skating game before this, and after overcoming the seven serious injuries of his football career and starting from scratch, being able to participate in the Winter Olympic Games itself created a great achievement. I believe that if he had engaged in skating earlier, he would have been able to reach the official winter Olympic games.
Even so, Ilhan wrote a magical experience, from figure skating to participating in the Winter Olympics qualification tournament in 5 years, he proved that he was the most skating football player in sports.