Hakan Yakin - International Career

International Career

Yakin has been capped 87 times for Switzerland, the first coming in 2000. He was offered Turkish nationality before being called up to the Swiss squad, but turned it down for personal reasons. He has played in UEFA Euro 2004, UEFA Euro 2008, and both the 2006 FIFA World Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup with his country.

On 11 June 2008, Yakin scored the opening goal in the 32nd minute of Switzerland's second Euro 2008 Group A match against Turkey, giving them a 1–0 lead and he refused to celebrate after the goal. However, he missed another chance shortly afterward as Turkey scored two second-half goals, resulting in Switzerland becoming the first team to be mathematically eliminated from their own tournament within five days of its beginning. However, in Switzerland's final group match against Portugal on 15 June, Yakin added two second-half goals, the second a penalty kick, to secure their first ever win at the UEFA European Championship, 2–0. Yakin finished the tournament as joint-second highest goalscorer with Lukas Podolski, Roman Pavlyuchenko, and Semih Şentürk with three goals each, behind David Villa's four goals.

Under new national team coach, Ottmar Hitzfeld, Yakin participated in seven of Switzerland's ten qualifying matches for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, starting twice, and making five substitute appearances, scoring one goal in Switzerland's opening qualifier against Israel. He announced his retirement from the Swiss national team on 4 October 2011.