Ergün Penbe (born 17 May 1972), known by his nickname Kemik –literally meaning ''the Bone''–, is a Turkish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played mostly as a

left midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

and

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

, and is currently the manager of

Yeni Mersin İdmanyurdu Yeni Mersin İdmanyurdu is a Turkish sports club located in Mersin. The football team currently plays in the TFF Second League. Current squad Out on loan References External linksOfficial website

. He is known for his "fair play" approach to the game, having gone through two seasons of football without a single booking. He also received the nickname ''Kemik'' (the bone), because of his calmness and ability to hold the team together. He spent most of his professional career with

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

, winning a total of 12 titles. He wore number 67 during his career in honor of the identifying vehicle plate code number of his hometown, Zonguldak.

Club career

Born in

Zonguldak Zonguldak () is a List of cities in Turkey, city of about 100 thousand people in the Black Sea region of Turkey. It is the seat of Zonguldak Province and Zonguldak District.Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

, Ergün begun his professional career with Gençlerbirliği SK. After that, in the 1994 summer, he signed with top division giants

Galatasaray SK Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish people, Turkish sports club based on the Rumelia, European side of the city of Istanbul including ...

, being one of the team's most influential players in the following decade (in a variety of positions, including

), and playing a very important part in the side's exploits from 1999–2001, which brought a total of six titles – two domestic doubles, the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

and the

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

; in the first competition's

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, he scored in the

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

win against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. On 27 August 2007, 35-year-old Ergün signed a 1+1 year contract with

Gaziantepspor Gaziantepspor was a Turkish football club located in the city of Gaziantep. Formed in 1969 and dissolved in 2020, Gaziantepspor were nicknamed the ''Şahinler'' (The Falcons). The club colours were black and red, and they played their home matc ...

. He made his debut for his new team on 31 October in a

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup () is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası''. Now Ziraat Bankası is ...

clash against Fenerbahçe. After helping the side finish eighth in the league, with the player appearing in exactly half of the games, he decided to retire at the age of 36. Immediately after retiring, Ergün was appointed as assistant manager of lowly

Hacettepe Spor Kulübü Hacettepe Spor Kulübü (), commonly known as Hacettepe, is a Turkish professional football club located in Ankara. History Hacettepe Spor Kulübü was founded as Sanayi Barbarosspor in 1949. The club played in third division in the Turkish Le ...

on 5 November 2008. After Erdoğan Arıca's resignation he was promoted to head coach, but could not prevent the club from being relegated to the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. On 12 February 2010, Ergün signed with

Mersin Idman Yurdu Mersin İdman Yurdu was a Turkish sports club from Mersin, Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean Region. The team played in the Turkish first division for 15 seasons, and after the 1983–84 season the football team played in the Turkish second an ...

in that same category, until the end of the season.

International career

Ergün represented

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

on 48 occasions, all of his

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

coming whilst he was at Galatasaray, in a 12-year span. He was part of the nation's final squads at

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

and the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, playing in three matches in the former competition and five in the latter, as it respectively reached the quarterfinals and finished in third place.

Managerial career

On October 1, 2024, he reached an agreement with

TFF 2. Lig The TFF 2. Lig (), currently referred to as Nesine 2. Lig for sponsorship reasons, is the third level in the Turkish football league system. It was founded in the 2001–02 season with the name of ''Turkish Second League Category B'' as a continua ...

team, until the end of the 2024-25 season.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial statistics

Honours

Galatasaray *

Turkish League Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

: 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2001–02, 2005–06 *

: 1995–96, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2004–05 *

: 1999–2000 *

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Turkey *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

: third place

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBO ...

: third place

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Order * Turkish State Medal of Distinguished Service

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Penbe, Ergun 1972 births Living people Sportspeople from Zonguldak Turkish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Süper Lig players Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers Gaziantepspor footballers Galatasaray S.K. footballers Turkey men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players Turkish football managers Süper Lig managers Mersin Talim Yurdu managers Kartal S.K. managers Kayseri Erciyesspor managers Çorum F.K. managers Turkey men's under-21 international footballers UEFA Europa League–winning players Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Turkey Mediterranean Games medalists in football Competitors at the 1993 Mediterranean Games