It has, Colin Kazim-Richards admits, been an amazing journey. At the age of 20, he was languishing in the Sheffield United reserve team and wondering if he was going to get his big break. Fast-forward 18 months and not only has he scored in a Champions League quarter-final, against Chelsea, but tomorrow he will be playing in a European Championship semi-final against Germany.

The journey began, like David Beckham’s, in Leytonstone, East London, where he was born to an Antiguan father and a Turkish Cypriot mother, but the path he has taken to stardom could hardly be more different: an apprenticeship with Bury, a £250,000 move to Brighton & Hove Albion (partly financed by a supporter, who won a “buy your club a player” prize), a brief, unhappy spell at Bramall Lane and then, most unexpectedly, a call-up by Turkey and a transfer 12 months ago to Fenerbahçe, in the football hotbed of Istanbul.

Kazim-Richards, 21, says that he can walk around the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent without anyone giving him a second glance, which is about as far removed as it gets from the reaction that he provokes among the locals in Istanbul, where he is known and revered as “Kazim Kazim”. He says that the passion he arouses in his adopted city is “ridiculous”, that he cannot walk down the street without being mobbed. Heaven only knows what it will be like for him and his team-mates if Turkey can defy the odds and become European champions on Sunday.

“It’s amazing,” Kazim-Richards said, as he looked forward to the semi-final in Basle tomorrow. “I’m not only Turkish, I’m English as well, so to play the Germans is incredible. I hope we can beat them. Anything is possible, as we have shown already in this tournament. We don’t give up until the last second, until the final whistle blows.”

That never-say-die attitude has taken Turkey farther than they dared to imagine, with dramatic late victories over Switzerland and the Czech Republic before the penalty shoot-out triumph over Croatia in the quarter- finals. In one sense, it is an attitude that mirrors that of their English-born winger, a player who has not had success given to him on a plate.

“Coming from the East End, I know how hard life can be. You have to be very determined to make it,” he said. “You pinch yourself sometimes when you’re hanging out with Roberto Carlos [a Fenerbahçe team-mate], but I have always had confidence in myself. I had big ambitions and big dreams when I was younger. I wanted to play in tournaments like this.”

Someone asks him — bravely, it transpires — whether he is here under false pretences, a “plastic Turk” similar to the “plastic Paddies” who played for Ireland under Jack Charlton. “When you look at me, I might not look Turkish, but I feel Turkish and I’m incredibly proud to play for this team,” Kazim-Richards said. “I would have been happy to play for England or Turkey, but the call never came for the [England] under-21s. Turkey knew my background and really made me feel welcome, even though I could barely speak a word of the language.

“To be called up to the team was a dream. Then to be included in the final squad for this tournament was another dream. Now I would love a third dream — to win this trophy. Why not?”

Uefa has rejected Turkey’s appeal against a two-match ban imposed upon Volkan Demirel. The goalkeeper was sent off for pushing Jan Koller, the striker, during their 3-2 victory against the Czech Republic. He will miss the semi-final against Germany.