ISTANBUL: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan scored an improbable three goals in just 15 minutes as he took to the field in a football friendly to mark the opening of a new stadium in Istanbul.

Erdogan is standing in presidential elections on Aug 10 and made sure no one forgot his candidacy during the game by wearing the shirt number 12 — if elected he would be the 12th president of modern Turkey.

The 60-year-old prime minister, an avid football fan who played as an amateur in his youth, took part in a match to mark the opening of the new stadium of the Istanbul Basaksehir team.

Clad in a bright orange football strip, Erdogan saw his team fall behind 0-3 in the opening minutes of the game late on Saturday.

But then with almost his first touch of the ball, he smashed a shot past the goalkeeper and into the net with an impressive right foot strike.

Then ever better was to come, when he sent a deft left-footed chip flying over the goalkeeper’s head.

Some 15 minutes after the first goal, Erdogan completed his hat-trick with a somewhat easier shot after being given almost all the time in the world by the opposing team’s defenders.

His night’s work done, Erdogan was substituted and eventually watched his team turn out as easy winners. Just hours earlier, he had given a campaign speech in the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in Turkey’s southeast.

The game was given live coverage on Turkish state television with the commentator yelling with excitement as Erdogan scored his goals.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2014