Players - Emre Can

Emre Can
Birthdate: 12 January 1994
Birthplace: Frankfurt, Germany
Other clubs: Bayern Munich (2009-13), Bayer Leverkusen (2013-14), Juventus (2018-), Borussia Dortmund (loan 2020), Borussia Dortmund (2020-)
Signed from: Bayer Leverkusen
Signed for LFC: £9.75m, 03.07.2014
International debut: 04.09.2015 vs. Poland
International caps: 37/1 (20/1 at LFC) - 29.06.2021
Liverpool debut: 25.08.2014
Last appearance: 26.05.2018
Debut goal: 08.11.2014
Last goal: 24.02.2018
Contract expiry: 01.07.2018
Win ratio: 50.9% W:85 D:44 L:38
Games/assists ratio: 16.7
League games / goals / assists: 115 / 10 / 6
Total games / goals / assists: 167 / 14 / 10

Player Profile

Emre Can was born in Frankfurt am Main, the largest city in the state of Hessen. As a youth, he was associated with a local amateur club, SV Blau-Gelb Frankfurt, but was quickly recruited by the area’s big Bundesliga club, Eintracht Frankfurt, around the time he entered his teenage years. Eintracht nurtured their prodigy well but had little chance of holding on to him once the country’s biggest club started to show an interest. In July 2009 at the age of fifteen, Can moved to Bavaria to join the four-times European champions Bayern Munich. At the same time as he was moving through different age groups with his club, Can represented the country of his birth at different levels even though parentage meant that he was also eligible to play for Turkey. He had to serve an apprenticeship with Bayern’s Regional League South team before being named in a senior matchday squad for the first time for the home march against Schalke at the end of February 2012. Then came four successive Bundesliga appearances towards the end of the next season and his first senior Bayern goal, the only strike of a home match against SC Freiburg on 27 April 2013. He had also played in the German Supercup match against Borussia Dortmund at the start of the season when Bayern beat their fierce rivals 2-1 at the Allianz Arena in front of a crowd of nearly 70,000.

Bayern have a commendable policy of letting young players go so that they can improve and gain experience elsewhere. In the summer of 2013, Can, now in his twentieth year, moved nearly three hundred miles north to the Rhine city of Leverkusen to join the top local club, Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Bayer had finished third in 2012/13 to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League. Can played seven times in Europe’s premier club tournament, missing only the first leg of the Last 16 knockout match because of the three yellow cards he had received during the six group stage matches. Leverkusen lost 6-1 on aggregate to Paris Saint-Germain and dropped one place to fourth in the league with Can appearing in 29 of the 34 fixtures. He scored home and away against FC Augsburg and also away at Eintracht Frankfurt, the club he was with as a teenager. He also scored in the German Cup win at Freiburg in December. Can had four assists to his name in the last campaign despite mainly used as a defensive midfielder.

Liverpool activated a £9.75m release clause to bring Can to Anfield in the summer of 2014. Having excelled in Germany as an energetic box to box midfield player, Can was used mainly on the right side of a back three for Liverpool, but still loved to get forward. His only goal of the season was in a 2-1 home defeat to Chelsea in November. On the last day of 2014/15 season, he played in an unfamiliar right-back role on the last day of the season at Stoke and was ruthlessly exposed as the Reds were thrashed 6-1. However, in the summer he reverted to his preferred role for Germany in the European Under 21 Championships and helped his country get to the semi-finals. Can made his senior debut against Poland in the group stages of the European Championships on 4 September 2015.

In 2015/16 Can matured after the arrival of Jurgen Klopp as manager and became more consistent, especially since he returned to his natural position as a midfielder. He scored the first goal of Klopp's reign, against Rubin Kazan in the Europa League group stages. His worth was shown when he missed the first leg of the Europa League semi-final away to Villareal through injury but returned for the second and played a pivotal role in overturning the 1-0 deficit. In total, he started 46 games during the season. Can played 32 times in the league in 2016/17 and scored five goals, his best ever tally. One of these was a stunning overhead kick at Watford which voted the club's goal of the season. During the summer he won his first international honour as Germany triumphed in the Confederations Cup. He started 2017/18 in the side, but his contract had still not been sorted and as the season went on reports continued to link him with a move to Juventus, as well as speculating that he wanted a guarantee of starting a certain number of games per season. By March he had secured his best goalscoring return, six, but was then ruled out for injury. Can got himself fit to make a late substitute appearance in the Champions League final. On 21 June, it was announced by Juventus that he had agreed a four-year deal with them with a reported £14 million signing on fee.

Can made a slow start to life in Turin but grew as the season progressed. He ended the campaign a Serie A winner and made 37 appearances in all competitions, scoring four goals. However, he received a shock at the start of 2019/20 when he was left out of the Italian giants' 22 man Champions League squad. After making just two starts in Serie A during the first half of the season, Can joined Borussia Dortmund on loan in the January transfer window, with the deal becoming permanent in the summer. Over the next two seasons he featured far more, winning the DFB Pokal in 2020/21 and finishing as Bundesliga runners up in 2021/22.
Appearances per season
Season League FA LC Europe Other Total
Totals 115 10 14 28 0 167
2014-2015 27 6 3 4 0 40
2015-2016 30 0 5 14 0 49
2016-2017 32 2 6 0 0 40
2017-2018 26 2 0 10 0 38
A more detailed look at the player's appearances
Apps Minutes Opponent
10 807 Southampton
9 810 Manchester United
9 755 Manchester City
8 487 Tottenham
7 640 Chelsea
7 539 Arsenal
7 531 Crystal Palace
7 525 Swansea City
7 484 Stoke City
6 515 WBA
6 508 Leicester City
6 496 West Ham United
5 450 Sunderland
5 404 Burnley
5 387 Watford
5 368 Everton
4 360 Aston Villa
4 248 Hull City
4 234 Bournemouth
3 193 Sevilla
3 105 Real Madrid
2 210 Besiktas
2 180 Augsburg
2 180 Rubin
2 180 NK Maribor
2 180 Sion
2 180 Bolton Wanderers
2 180 Norwich City
2 180 Newcastle United
2 170 Borussia Dortmund
2 163 Spartak Moscow
2 160 Hoffenheim
2 156 QPR
2 113 Bordeaux
2 107 Huddersfield Town
1 120 Carlisle United
1 90 Middlesbrough
1 90 Brighton & Hove Albion
1 90 Leeds United
1 90 Blackburn Rovers
1 90 Villarreal
1 90 AFC Wimbledon
1 80 Porto
1 71 Burton Albion
1 62 Plymouth Argyle
1 34 Derby
1 16 Wolves
Total Started/substitutions
145 Started
14 On the bench
22 Substitute
27 Substituted
Total Venue
85 Home
81 Away
1 Neutral
Total Competition
115 Premier League
16 Europa League
14 League Cup
12 Champions League
10 FA Cup
Total W D L Win % Manager
116 62 31 23 53.4% Jürgen Klopp
51 23 13 15 45.1% Brendan Rodgers
Goals per season
Season League FA LC Europe Other Total
Totals 10 0 0 4 0 14
2014-2015 1 0 0 0 0 1
2015-2016 1 0 0 1 0 2
2016-2017 5 0 0 0 0 5
2017-2018 3 0 0 3 0 6
A more detailed look at the player's goalscoring
Assists per season
Season League FA LC Europe Other Total
Totals 6 1 1 2 0 10
2014-2015 0 1 0 0 0 1
2015-2016 0 0 1 2 0 3
2016-2017 2 0 0 0 0 2
2017-2018 4 0 0 0 0 4
A more detailed look at the player's assists
Milestone Appearances
# Date Against Stadium Competition
1 25.08.2014 Manchester City Etihad Stadium League
50 01.10.2015 Sion Anfield Europe
100 19.11.2016 Southampton St Mary's League
150 13.12.2017 WBA Anfield League
Milestone Goals
# Minute Date Against Stadium Competition
1 9 08.11.2014 Chelsea Anfield League
Related Articles
Profile on Emre Can

Liverpool's latest recruit, who signed officially for the club today after agreeing to join the Reds on 5 June, is an energetic box-to-box midfielder, with good skill on the ball and an excellent eye for a pass.

Other Clubs
Club Season Club rank League apps League goals Total apps Total goals
Bayern Munich 2012-2013 Bundesliga, Germany 4 1 6 1
Leverkusen 2013-2014 Bundesliga, Germany 29 3 39 4
Juventus 2018-2019 Italy 1 29 4 37 4
Juventus 2019-2020 Italy 1 8 0 8 0
Borussia Dortmund 2019-2020 Germany 1 12 2 13 2
Borussia Dortmund 2020-2021 Germany 1 28 1 40 2
Total 110 11 143 13