Gençlerbirliği

Full name	Gençlerbirliği Spor Kulübü
Nickname(s)	Gençler (The Youth) Ankara Rüzgârı (The Wind of Ankara) Alkaralar (The Red and Black)
Founded	14 March 1923 (1923-03-14)
Ground	Eryaman Stadium
Capacity	20,560[1]
President	Niyazi Akdaş
Head coach	Sinan Kaloğlu
League	TFF First League
2022–23	TFF First League, 15th of 19
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Gençlerbirliği Spor Kulübü (pronounced Turkish pronunciation: [ɟentʃˈlæɾbiɾli.i]), commonly known as Gençlerbirliği, is a Turkish sports club based in Ankara. Formed in 1923, Gençlerbirliği are nicknamed Ankara Rüzgârı (The Wind of Ankara) or simply Gençler (The Youth). The club colours are black and red. The football team currently plays its home matches at Eryaman Stadium, following the closure of the Ankara 19 Mayıs.

Domestically, the club have won the Turkish Cup twice, in 1987 and 2001. They have also won the former Turkish Football Championship twice and the regional Ankara Football League a record nine times. In Europe, Gençlerbirliği's greatest success came in 2004. The club reached the fourth round of the UEFA Cup before losing to eventual champions Valencia.

History

Gençlerbirliği squad in 1924.

Gençlerbirliği were founded in a slightly different way compared to many other football clubs, having been established by students from a high school, Ankara Erkek Lisesi (Sultani Mektebi) now Ankara Atatürk Lisesi . The students in question (Ramiz Eren, Mennan İz, Mazhar Atacanlı, Sait, Kenan, Nuri, Namık Katoğlu, Namık Ambarcıoğlu, Rıdvan Kırmacı, Hafi Araç, Ruhi, Sarı Ziya and Hakkı) had failed to be selected for their own school team, and asked one of their student friends, Asim, to talk with his father about setting up a football team for them to show how well they could play.

On 14 March 1923, Asim's father, the member of parliament from Muş Province, established the team for his son and his friends. Since all the members of the team were students he chose the name 'Youth Union' (Turkish: Gençlerbirliği). They elected Sarı Ziya's father Faik Bey as their first chairman.^[2]

Turkish newspaper Yeni Sabah announcing the Turkish championship title of Gençlerbirliği on 16 July 1941.

Subsequently, these young students wanted to play against the school team which had not selected them. Gençlerbirliği won the game, played at "Hamit tarlası", 3–0. According to these young rebellious players this victory forged the identity of their new team.

They won the regional Ankara Football League a record nine times between 1923 and 1959, when the league had first level status before the introduction of a nationwide league.^[3] Their greatest success domestically were the victories in the former Turkish Football Championship, when they became Turkish champions in 1941 and 1946.^[4] Gençler entered the Turkish National League in 1959 and played 12 seasons until relegation in the 1969–70 season. They played in the second level until relegation to third level in the 1978–79 season. The club came back to second level after the merger of the third level with second level, at the end of the 1979–80 season. They finished second from last in Group A of the Second League, and had to relegate to the regional league. But, since the number of teams in the second division was increased, Gençlerbirliği were readmitted. The club won Group D in the 1982–83 season and finally returned to the top-flight after 13 years. They relegated again in 1987–88 season. Finally, Gençlerbirliği returned to the top-flight in the 1988–89 season, in their first return attempt. Gençlerbirliği's most successful seasons in the Süper Lig are 1965–66 and 2002–03, when they reached the third place. At the end of the 2017–18 season Gençler only reached the 17th place and as a result the club relegated to the second tier TFF First League.

Colours

There are two rumors about how Gençlerbirliği got their team colours, black and red:

• The young students went to a local haberdashers and the only available colours were black and red. They purchased these colours to sew their own kit.
• The outskirts of Ankara during spring time see plenty of poppy flowers (Gelincik) blooming and Gençlerbirliği selected the red and black of this flower for their colours. Gençlerbirliği merchandise in their store is usually called Gelincik by their

.

Rivalry

Gençlerbirliği's arch-rival are the neighbouring club Ankaragücü and games between the clubs are considered as the "Derby of the Capital".

Youth academy and scouting

Gençlerbirliği have always been one of the teams in Turkey most notable for their talented young footballers that they procure through scouting both in Turkey and throughout Europe and Africa. For example, Geremi was scouted and raised by the club, transferred to Real Madrid and later Chelsea. Another of Gençlerbirliği's young stars Isaac Promise received the 2005–06 Super League Individual Youth player of the Year award.^[5] Also included was Arda Güler, who was sold to Fenerbahce.

Gençlerbirliği's state-of-the-art youth academy is located in Beştepe, Ankara with 50 acres (200,000 m²) of training facilities (Beştepe İlhan Cavcav Tesisleri).

Gençlerbirliği had been run by İlhan Cavcav from 1978 until his death in 2017. With Cavcav's help, Gençlerbirliği have become one of the more stable clubs in Turkey. This has been achieved mainly through the departure of the most talented players every season to the other clubs in Turkey. Departing players are usually replaced with much cheaper imports from Turkey, Europe or Africa.

Honours

European participations

As of 30 September 2004

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1987–88	First Round	Dinamo Minsk	1–2	0–2	1–4

UEFA Cup

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2001–02	First Round	Halmstad	1–1	0–1	1–2
2003–04	First Round	Blackburn Rovers	3–1	1–1	4–2
	Second Round	Sporting CP	1–1	3–0	4–1
	Third Round	Parma	3–0	1–0	4–0
	Fourth Round	Valencia	1–0	0–2 (aet)	1–2
2004–05	Second Qualifying Round	Rijeka	1–0	1–2	2–2 (a)
	First Round	Egaleo	1–1	0–1	1–2

UEFA Intertoto Cup

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1995	Group Stage (Group 11)	Strasbourg	—	1–4	3rd
		Tirol Innsbruck	—	2–3
		Hapoel Petah Tikva	4–0	—
		Floriana	3–0	—

Balkans Cup

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1967–68	Group Stage (Group A)	Beroe Stara Zagora	0–2	0–1	4th
		Vllaznia Shkodër	1–1	0–1
		Farul Constanța	1–2	1–3

UEFA Ranking history

See also: UEFA coefficient

As of 2009

Season	Rank	Points	Ref.
2002	157	15.362	[6]
2003	162	15.495	[7]
2004	88	23.656	[8]
2005	94	23.872	[9]
2006	106	22.634	[10]
2007	106	21.791	[11]
2008	100	23.469	[12]
2009	171	7.445	[13]

Players

Current squad

As of 18 September 2023^{[14] [15]}

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  TUR Ertuğrul Çetin (on loan from Fenerbahçe) 5 DF  CHN Wu Shaocong (on loan from İstanbul Başakşehir) 6 MF  TUR Rahman Buğra Çağıran 7 MF  TUR Enes Keskin (on loan from Pendikspor) 8 MF  GER Erdal Öztürk 9 FW  MLI Mustapha Yatabaré 10 FW  NGA Olarenwaju Kayode 13 GK  TUR Orkun Özdemir 15 DF  CGO Francis Nzaba (on loan from İstanbul Başakşehir) 17 DF  TUR Yasin Güreler 20 MF  TUR Ensar Kemaloğlu 22 MF  MLI Sambou Yatabaré 23 DF  TUR Yiğit Efe Demir (on loan from Fenerbahçe) 24 DF  TUR Alperen Babacan

No. Pos. Nation Player 25 MF  TUR Eralp Aydın 29 FW  TUR Fırat Tulgayoğlu 35 MF  TUR Musa Çağıran 42 MF  POR Tiago Rodrigues 45 MF  TUR Arda Çağan Çelik 53 DF  TUR Umut İslamoğlu 60 DF  TUR Özgür Çek 61 FW  TUR Oltan Karakullukçu 72 FW  TUR Muhammed Ertürk 77 DF  TUR Uğur Akdemir (captain) 87 MF  TUR Abdullah Durak 88 MF  NGA Chukwuma Akabueze 89 FW  BRA Amilton 99 GK  TUR Atalay Gökçe

Other players under contract

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  TUR Ebrar Aydın — FW  TUR Miraç Asıltekin

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  TUR Melih Bostan

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  TUR Ahmet Enes Akkan (at Nevşehir Belediyespor until 30 June 2024) — DF  TUR Ahmet Buğra Güven (at İnegölspor until 30 June 2024) — DF  TUR Baran Kayikci (at Hacettepe 1945 SK until 30 June 2024) — DF  TUR Abdullah Şahindere (at Hacettepe 1945 SK until 30 June 2024) — DF  TUR Musa Şahindere (at Hacettepe 1945 SK until 30 June 2024) — DF  TUR Berat Can Sebat (at Karabük İdman Yurdu until 30 June 2024) — MF  TUR Ataberk Gök (at Hacettepe 1945 SK until 30 June 2024)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  TUR Seyit Ali Kahya (at Nevşehir Belediyespor until 30 June 2024) — MF  TUR Abdussamet Yılmaz (at Edirnespor until 30 June 2024) — FW  TUR Gökhan Altıparmak (at Hacettepe 1945 SK until 30 June 2024) — FW  TUR Baran Başyiğit (at Orduspor 1967 until 30 June 2024) — FW  TUR Emirkan Demir (at Hacettepe 1945 SK until 30 June 2024) — FW  TUR Kağan Özkan (at Nevşehir Belediyespor until 30 June 2024) — FW  TUR Arda Tuzcu (at Arnavutköy Belediyespor until 30 June 2024)

Most capped players

	Player	Caps	Period
1	Tevfik Kutlay	353	1959–72
2	Selçuk Çakmaklı	336	1959–72
3	Avni Okumuş	317	1983–93
4	Zeynel Soyuer	291	1959–71
5	Nihat Baştürk	279	1994–2005
6	Metin Diyadin	265	1988–98
7	Orhan Yüksel	235	1959–66
8	Mehmet Şimşek	228	1993–2001
9	İhsan Temen	219	1959-66
10	Okan Gedikali	207	1982–91

Top goalscorers

	Player	Goals (Caps)	Period
1	Andre Kona N'Gole	72 (145)	1993–2001
2	Avni Okumuş	71 (317)	1983–1993
3	Orhan Yüksel	67 (235)	1959–1966
4	Ümit Karan	59 (150)	1996–2001
5	Souleymane Youla	57 (134)	2001–2005
6	Bogdan Stancu	55 (139)	2013-2020
7	Abdullah Çevrim	50 (154)	1961–1966
8	Zeynel Soyuer	47 (291)	1959–1971
9	Tevfik Kutlay	46 (353)	1959–1972
10	Muammer Nurlu	44 (152)	1983–1989

Former players

• See Category:Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers

Coaches

Presidents

See also

• Hacettepe SK, the reserve team of Gençlerbirliği.

References

Further reading

• Ankara Rüzgarı. Kendi Yayınları 2003 ISBN 975-92422-0-6 author: Tanıl Bora. (in Turkish)

External links

• Official website
• Gençlerbirliği on TFF.org