Şenol Güneş (, born 1 June 1952) is a Turkish

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

who is currently the director of professional football for

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

club

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional sports club located in the city of Trabzon, located in Black Sea region, northeastern Turkey. Established in 1967 through the merger of several local clubs, Trabzonspor is one of the most prominent A ...

. His most notable managerial achievements to date include coaching the Turkey national team to third place in 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 ...

and winning two

titles; both of them with Beşiktaş. He is also noted for stints in his boyhood club

. His playing career there saw the club win six of their seven Süper Lig titles.

Playing career

Güneş began his amateur career at Erdoğdu Gençlik as a goalkeeper. Shortly after he was recruited for the

development team, and began playing for the senior team soon after. He played for

for twelve years between 1975 and 1987. During this period he won six league championships. In the 1978–79 season, he set the

clean sheet record by not conceding a single goal for 1,110 minutes. He was part of the "Trabzonpor Efsanesi" (literally "The Legend of Trabzonspor", a name given by the Turkish press) along with other local players such as Turgay Semercioğlu, Necmi Perekli and Ali Kemal Denizci. Güneş has 31 caps for the Turkey national team, being the captain in five games.

Managerial career

His managerial career started at

, where he was assistant manager before being promoted. He came close to winning

in the 1995–96 campaign after leading all season, but in the end his team came second. That year,

also played in the

1996–97 UEFA Cup The 1996–97 UEFA Cup was the 26th season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). It was won by German side Schalke 04, who beat Internazionale of Italy on pen ...

where they were knocked out by

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, w ...

. He left the club soon after, and worked at

Antalyaspor Antalyaspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional multi-sport club based in Antalya, southern Turkey. The club's colours are red and white. The association football, football side play their home matches at the Antalya Stadium. In Turkey, the cl ...

and

Sakaryaspor Sakaryaspor Kulübü Derneği is a Turkish professional football club playing in the TFF First League, which is the second level of Turkish football. History The club was formed in 1965 after the merger of ''Adapazarı Gençlerbirliği'', ''Adap ...

. In 2000, he was hired to manage the Turkey national team. Turkey qualified for the

and finished third. Güneş won the

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

Coach of the Year award for 2002. After the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

, he received many offers from Greece, Brazil and Spain, but he wanted to stay with

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 ...

. After the national team failed to qualify for

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

, Güneş was sacked as manager. He returned to

in January 2005, signing a three-and-a-half-year contract but left after finishing narrowly in second place. At this time, there were rumours that Güneş would be taking a coaching job in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

or in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. On 8 December 2006,

FC Seoul FC Seoul () is a South Korean professional Association football, football club based in Seoul that competes in the K League 1, the top flight of Football in South Korea, South Korean football. The club is owned by GS Sports, a subsidiary of GS G ...

, one of the leading football clubs in the

K League K League () is South Korea's professional football league. It includes the first division K League 1 and the second division K League 2. Clubs competing in the K League have won a record total of twelve AFC Champions League Elite, AFC Champions ...

, announced their three-year contract with Güneş starting from 2007. Three years later, Güneş returned to his hometown as head coach of

for the fourth time, replacing Hugo Broos. In the 2010-11 campaign, he again led the entire season with Trabzonspor, but finished second once again at the end of the season. Later, it was revealed the 2011 Turkish sports corruption scandal was the main cause of this. After

, he signed with

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği, commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkey, Turkish professional sports club based in the city of Bursa. Founded in 1963, the club is best known for its football team, which has a rich history in Football in Turkey, Turk ...

on a one-year contract. Bursaspor finished in sixth place in 2014–15 Süper Lig and reached the

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 ...

final that year. On 11 June 2015, he signed with a two-and-a-half year contract with

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

. Güneş led

to their 14th title (and first since 2009) in 2016. For Güneş, it was his first title as manager. He led them to their 15th and second title in a row in 2017. On 28 February 2019, it was announced that Güneş would take the Turkey national team managerial post for a second time on a four-year deal, 15 years after his last stint, effective from 1 June 2019. He oversaw Turkey's 2–0 win over Albania in the opening UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers. On 28 October 2022, Güneş joined Beşiktaş for his second stint, following the departure of French head coach

Valérien Ismaël Valérien Alexandre Ismaël (born 28 September 1975) is a French professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of EFL Championship club Blackburn Rovers. A centre-back, Ismaël played for Strasbourg, Crystal Palace, Len ...

. On 10 September 2024 Şenol Güneş signed a two-and-a-half year contract with

, becoming the club's head coach.

Personal life

Güneş was born in

Trabzon Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. The city was founded in 756 BC as "Trapezous" by colonists from Miletus. It was added into the Achaemenid E ...

, Turkey, and graduated from Karadeniz Technical University. He taught at a middle school in Trabzon between 1978 and 1983. He and his wife Semra have two daughters.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

:Sources: Trabzonspor *

: 1975–76, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1983–84 *

: 1976–77, 1977–78, 1983–84 *

Turkish Super Cup The Turkish Super Cup, known as Turkcell Super Cup () for sponsorship reasons, is a super cup tournament in Turkish football. Founded in 1966 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2025 by four teams: the winners ...

: 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983

Manager

Trabzonspor *

: 1994–95, 2009–10 *

: 1995,

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Beşiktaş *

: 2015–16, 2016–17 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 ...

Awards and achievements

UEFA Team of the Year The UEFA Fan's Team of the Year is a football award given by UEFA through a poll on its official website. This award started in 2001 and allows users of the organization's website to choose their own eleven players and a coach based on their ove ...

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

's third best national team coach of the world: 2002 *2002 Turkish

State Medal of Distinguished Service State Medal of Distinguished Service () is one of the three civil state decorations of Turkey. The medal was established on October 24, 1983 with the Law on Medals and Orders, Act No. 2933. It is rewarded to Turkish citizens, foreigners and organiz ...

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunes, Senol 1952 births Living people Footballers from Trabzon Turkish men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Akçaabat Sebatspor footballers Trabzonspor footballers Süper Lig players Turkey men's international footballers Turkish football managers Boluspor managers İstanbulspor managers Trabzonspor managers Antalyaspor managers Sakaryaspor managers Turkey national football team managers FC Seoul managers Bursaspor managers Beşiktaş J.K. managers Süper Lig managers K League 1 managers 2002 FIFA World Cup managers 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup managers UEFA Euro 2020 managers Turkish expatriate football managers Turkish expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Expatriate football managers in South Korea Recipients of the State Medal of Distinguished Service 20th-century Turkish sportsmen