Terim leaves out Basturk

Like the rest of the nations competing this Summer, Fatih Terim has today announced his 23 man squad for the tournament.

The Turkish coach has opted to leave out Schalke frontman Halil Altintop, as well as their classy midfielder Yildiray Basturk.

Terim indicated that Basturk would not get any playing time during the tournament and explained his choice during a press conference today by saying:

"I didn't want to leave him sitting on the bench at a European Championships,"

"That's something I didn't want to do to him. He had been injured a long time and that had a lot to do with the decision."

Turkey squad:

Goalkeepers: Volkan Demirel (Fenerbahce), Rustu Recber (Besiktas), Tolga Zengin (Trabzonspor).

Defenders: Gokhan Zan (Besiktas), Sabri Sarioglu (Galatasaray), Emre Asik (Ankaraspor), Servet Cetin (Galatasaray), Emre Gungor (Galatasaray), Hakan Balta (Galatasaray), Ugur Boral, Gokhan Gonul (Fenerbahce).

Midfielders: Mehmet Aurelio (Fenerbahce), Kazim Kazim (Fenerbahce), Mehmet Topal (Galatasaray), Arda Turan (Galatasaray), Ayhan Akman (Galatasaray), Emre Belozoglu (Newcastle), Tumer Metin (Larissa), Hamit Altintop (FC Bayern), Tuncay Sanli (Middlesbrough), Gokdeniz Karadeniz (Rubin Kazan).

Forwards: Nihat Kahveci (Villarreal), Semih Senturk (Fenerbahce), Mevlut Erdinc (Sochaux)