A great honor for Hamit

During last night's Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) awards ceremony for 2010 held in Zurich, Switzerland Altıntop received the Puskas Award for scoring the most beautiful goal in 2010.
Hamit Altıntop, who plays for Germany's Bundesliga team Bayern Munich, was the recipient of the 'Puskas Goal of the Year' an honor, which was voted on by journalists as well 208-FIFA member national team technical directors and captains.
Amongst the other competitors for Altıntop's prestigious accolade were Burrows from Northern Ireland, Nasri from France, Messi from Argentina, Robben from Holland, Brazil's Neymar, Sweden's Hallenius, Yokoyama from Japan, Tshabalala from South Africa and Bronckhorst, also from Holland
Although Hamit Altıntop plays for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, the fact that he scored the goal that won him the award while playing on Turkey's National Team has become a source of pride for Turks alike. Therefore, it was hard not to notice a small detail during last night's awards ceremony.
While a number of award recipients chose to use their native language for their acceptance speech, such as Jose Mourinho, who spoke Portuguese upon being awarded as the year's best technical director, our national player who won for scoring the most beautiful goal, chose to accept the award in German instead of speaking in Turkish.
The fact that Hamit Altıntop chose to speak in German instead of Turkish in his acceptance speech has not been avoided by debate in internet forums. A number of the nation's football fans are disappointed in the player for the choice he made last night.