Most footballers who reach 35 at the top level are quietly counting down. İlkay Gündoğan chose to spend that stretch in Istanbul, in the country his parents came from, playing for a club that had long been part of his family's football culture. He signed for Galatasaray in September 2025 on a two-year deal, so the 2026/27 season now under way is the last one on paper. He turns 36 on 24 October.
That leaves one question hanging over everything he does this season. Is this the final lap? Nobody outside his camp knows yet. What we can do is lay out where he stands: the contract, the money, the family and a career that already looks complete.
The essentials
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | İlkay Gündoğan |
| Born | 24 October 1990, Gelsenkirchen, Germany |
| Age | 35 (36 on 24 October 2026) |
| Nationality | German, with Turkish family roots |
| Height | 1.80 m (about 5 ft 11 in) |
| Position | Central midfielder |
| Club | Galatasaray, shirt number 20 |
| Contract runs until | 30 June 2027 |
| Germany career | 82 caps, 19 goals (retired August 2024) |
| Net worth (Icon Polls estimate) | $46 million to $49 million |
Why Istanbul was never just a transfer
On paper, the move was simple. Gündoğan left Manchester City as a free agent and Galatasaray signed him on 2 September 2025 without paying a fee. In reality it carried far more weight than that.
He was born and raised in Germany, but his parents are Turkish, and he has spoken often about his connection to Türkiye. For the first time in his senior career, he was playing club football in his parents' country, on its biggest stage.
There was a practical side too. At 34 when he signed, he wanted regular minutes and a team with real ambition. Galatasaray offered both: a title race at home and Champions League football. For a player who has spent his career in serious competitions, that mattered as much as the sentiment.
What the money looks like at 35
This is one of the rare cases where a club put a salary figure on the record. Galatasaray announced a guaranteed net salary of €4.5 million for each of the two seasons in the deal. Gross estimates put the fixed amount at around €5.63 million a year, which works out at roughly €108,000 a week before bonuses.
That's below what he's understood to have earned at his Manchester City peak. It's still a very serious contract for a midfielder in his mid-thirties, and it tells you how Galatasaray see him: as a senior figure worth paying for, not a farewell signing.
Icon Polls estimates his net worth at between $46 million and $49 million. That figure is our editorial estimate, built from close to two decades of top-level contracts, bonuses, sponsorship income and years of Champions League football. His private finances have never been made public, so treat any number, including ours, as an informed guess.
A €2 million valuation for a treble-winning captain
His market value was estimated at about €2 million in May 2026. For a man who lifted the Champions League as captain, that sounds almost insulting. It isn't. Market value measures resale potential, and a 35-year-old with one year left on his deal has very little of that.
Galatasaray didn't sign him to sell him. They paid no fee, so there was nothing to recover. The investment was his wages and what he brings to the dressing room and the middle of the pitch: control, calm and experience of almost every big occasion the club game offers.
From Gelsenkirchen to Guardiola's first signing
Gündoğan came through a string of youth sides in the Ruhr, including Hessler 06, Schalke 04, SSV Buer and Bochum, before making his senior breakthrough at Nürnberg. Borussia Dortmund signed him in 2011, and under Jürgen Klopp he became one of the best midfielders in Germany. He won the Bundesliga and the German Cup and played in a Champions League final in 2013.
Then came the move that defined him. In 2016 he became Pep Guardiola's first signing at Manchester City. Over a seven-year first spell he won five Premier League titles and grew into the captain who lifted the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in the treble season of 2022/23.
He was never the fastest or the strongest player on the pitch. His game was intelligence: setting the tempo, finding space between the lines, and arriving late in the box at exactly the right moment. A season at Barcelona followed in 2023, then a return to City in 2024, and finally Istanbul.
If you think a player like that belongs in the all-time conversation, you can vote in our poll of the best football players of all time.
German by birth, Turkish by family
Gündoğan's family settled in Germany before he was born. His grandfather arrived as part of the generation of Turkish workers who built new lives there. That makes him German by nationality and Turkish by ethnic and family background, and he has always spoken openly about both.
Germany is where he was born, educated and developed as a footballer. He represented the country throughout his senior international career, from 2011 until August 2024, and captained Germany at Euro 2024. Türkiye is the homeland of his parents. The Galatasaray move didn't settle any question of identity. It simply made both sides of it visible at once.
Faith, kept mostly private
Gündoğan is Muslim. He has spoken publicly about coming from a Muslim family, including during the 2022 World Cup, when he described the tournament in Qatar as meaningful for many Muslims. He has also backed charity and food distribution projects linked to Ramadan.
Beyond that, he doesn't make religion a running public theme, and how he personally practises his faith is his own business.
Kais, Ella and Kian
He is married to Sara Arfaoui, an Italian model, actress and television personality. Their relationship became public in 2021 and they married in 2022. Their son Kais was born in 2023, their daughter Ella followed in 2025, and a second son, Kian, arrived in April 2026, with Galatasaray publicly congratulating the couple.
Sara has moved with him from Manchester to Barcelona to Istanbul. The couple appear on social media, but they keep most details of their children and home life out of view.
So, is retirement close?
Half of it has already happened. He announced his retirement from international football on 19 August 2024, ending a Germany career of 82 caps and 19 goals with the captaincy at a home Euros.
Club football is a different matter. He's under contract until June 2027, and there has been no confirmed announcement that he'll stop when it ends. Speculation is natural at his age, but it's only that. Our view: a player whose game depends on positioning and decision making rather than pace tends to age better than most, so writing him off would be premature.
Quick answers
Did Galatasaray pay a fee for Gündoğan?
No. He joined from Manchester City on a free transfer on 2 September 2025.
How much does he earn at Galatasaray?
The club announced a guaranteed net salary of €4.5 million per season. Gross estimates put it at about €5.63 million a year, before bonuses.
How many children does he have?
Three: Kais, born in 2023, Ella, born in 2025, and Kian, born in April 2026.
