During a professional career that lasted nearly 20 years, he played for 13 clubs, most notably Kayserispor for whom he was the top scorer with during the 2005–06 Süper Lig season.

[1] His goal scoring ability was also apparent in European competitions, where he scored 6 goals in 8 games during Kayserispor's UEFA Intertoto Cup campaign in the same season, in which they became the first team from Turkey to win the competition.

He attracted attention from a number of top clubs, namely Galatasaray[2] who tried to sign him during the summer break in 2007, but Kayserispor refused all offers, as well as another from Russian team Rubin Kazan for €6 million.

[5] On 18 January 2010, Fenerbahçe signed Ünal from Trabzonspor until June 2013 for €3.5 million plus Burak Yılmaz, who was on loan at Eskisehirspor until then.

[6][7] Ünal was sent to Istanbul BB on a six-month loan after his poor start to the season.