Naki began his football career at
Bayer 04 Leverkusen, but could never make it past its reserves. On 2 February 2009, he was loaned to
Rot Weiss Ahlen, playing eleven games and scoring four goals in his short spell. On 8 February, he made his professional debut in the
second division, coming on as a 79th-minute
substitute for
Marco Reus in a match against
FC Augsburg. On 25 June 2009, Naki left Bayer Leverkusen and signed a three-year contract with
FC St. Pauli at the
Millerntor-Stadion. He caused
controversy on 2 November when, after scoring his team's second goal away at rivals
FC Hansa Rostock (2–0 win), he celebrated with a 'cut-throat' gesture towards the opposing fans. He helped with seven league goals as St. Pauli
returned to the
top level. Following an unsuccessful trial at
Nottingham Forest, Naki completed a move to
SC Paderborn 07, signing a two-year contract with the
2. Bundesliga side in the summer of 2012. On 5 November 2014, Naki decided to leave
Gençlerbirliği after an alleged racist attack. Naki said he was attacked on the street in the
Turkish capital by three men shouting racist abuse and challenging him over his support for the
Syrian-Kurdish town of
Kobane, which is battling a siege by Islamic State (
ISIS). In February 2016, Naki, playing for Amed SK, was suspended for 12 games and received a large fine after allegedly expressing support for the
PKK, in the
Kurdish-Turkish conflict. He had written on his personal Facebook page that he dedicated the victory, a win over
Bursaspor in the
Turkish Cup, to those killed and wounded "under the oppression that has gone on for 50 days in our land," referring to the imposed curfews in numerous
Turkish towns with large groups of Kurdish ethnicity. In October 2016, Naki was charged with ‘promoting terrorist propaganda’ by a Turkish court on the basis of social media posts. According to writer Patrick Keddie, "In November 2016, a court acquitted Naki of all charges, but the prosecution appealed and in April 2017 he was given an 18-month suspended prison sentence – putting him on probation for five years." In June 2021, he was tried at the Aachen Regional Court for founding an organized crime syndicate, supporting a terrorist organization, drug dealing, blackmail and arson. He has been detained in Germany since July 2020. The request to be tried pending trial is rejected on the grounds that "there is a risk of escaping and obscuring evidence". He was detained in Germany for 2 years, He was released in 2023 and returned to the field again. ==International career==