Gökhan Gönül (born 4 January 1985) is a Turkish 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 le ...

who plays as a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

TFF First League The TFF 1. Lig, officially known as Spor Toto 1. Lig for sponsorship reasons, is the second level of the Turkish football league system. The league was founded in 2001 as the ''Turkish Second League Category A'' after the reorganization of the ...

club Çaykur Rizespor.

Early life

Gönül was born in

Bafra Bafra is a district of Samsun Province of Turkey. It is a settlement located from the Black Sea, in the fertile delta of the Kızılırmak River. The Bafra Plain is famous in Turkey for its rich soil and high quality tobacco growing conditions. ...

, Samsun, where he and his family lived before moving to

Bursa ( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the ...

when Gönül was six years old. His uncle signed him up with Bursayolspor's youth squad in 1999, and Gönül began his footballing career as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. However, after several other young goalkeepers signed with the club, Gönül was moved to the outfield. After putting in several performances, Gönül was told he would not play

again. At first, Gönül played football as a hobby and something to play when there was nothing else to do. He began taking the sport more seriously when his coach at the time, Mehmet Kirazoğlu, took him under his wing and trained him individually. Soon after, Gönül played in a senior match against 30-year-olds; Gönül was 13 at the time. Gönül played several positions before he could find his spot, lacing up as a libero,

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, and

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

at various levels. Gönül was the captain of the 14-16 team at Bursayolspor, and helped the club to a 3-3 draw with

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği (), commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Bursa. Formed in 1963, the club colours are green and white, with home kits usually featuring both colours in a striped pattern. In th ...

, scoring three goals while playing libero. Hasan Bora, a staff member at

at the time, was interested in signing Gönül after his performance. However, after seeing several of his peers join the club and fail to progress, Gönül took it as a sign and decided against joining the club.

Fatih Terim Fatih Terim (born 4 September 1953) is a Turkish association football manager and former player. He is the former manager of Galatasaray, a position he previously held four times. Terim has managed several clubs in Italy (Milan and Fiorentina) ...

, then coach of Galatasaray, also expressed interest in Gönül. He invited the youngster to

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, but Gönül ultimately did not agree to join the team. Instead, he signed with Gençlerbirliği on 9 August 2002.

Career

Gönül began his career with the Ankara-based club in the A2 league. In his first season, he scored two goals in 19 A2 league appearances. The following season, Gönül was loaned out to feeder club Hacettepe. He spent the 2003–04 season on loan, before joining the club on a full transfer at the end of the season. In his first two seasons with the club, Gönül scored eight goals in 48 appearances and helped the club to back-to-back promotions. Gençlerbirliği transferred him back to the club at the start of the 2005–06. However, an injury kept him sidelined for several months and he was unable to make his debut for the club. Instead, he was loaned out once more to Hacettepe at the winter break. Gönül helped the club to another promotion, completing three promotions in four years. He also won the award for Best Player of the

. Fenerbahçe transferred him before the start of the 2007–08 season, where he flourished under then-coach Zico. After putting in performances during the

2007–08 UEFA Champions League The 2007–08 UEFA Champions League was the 16th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since it was rebranded in 1992, and the 53rd tournament overall. The final was played on 21 May 2008 at the L ...

, he earned the nickname "Turkish Cafu". The club reached the quarter-finals of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

for the first time in club history. Gökhan Gönül extended to his contract in June 2012. The new deal will see him at the club until the 2015–16 and take home €1.7 million per season.

International career

Gönül was never capped at youth international level. He made his senior debut against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

on 27 November 2007. He made three more appearances that season, but was not selected in the Euro 2008 squad due to his injury. Gönül was called up to the Turkey squad for

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

Honours

;Fenerbahçe S.K. *

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2013-14 *

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Kupası'') 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 ...

: 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Turkish Super Cup The Turkish Super Cup ( Turkish: ''TFF Süper Kupa''), as it is currently known, is the annual super cup football match contested between the previous season's Süper Lig champions and the Turkish Cup winners in Turkey. It was originally known a ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

;Beşiktaş J.K. *

: 2016–17

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Turkey's goal tally first.''

Notes

References

External links

* * * *
Gökhan Gönül
at Fenerbahce.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonul, Gokhan 1985 births Living people People from Bafra Turkish footballers Turkey international footballers Turkey under-21 international footballers Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers Hacettepe S.K. footballers Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Çaykur Rizespor footballers Süper Lig players TFF First League players UEFA Euro 2016 players Association football fullbacks