Gençlerbirliği Spor Kulübü (pronounced ), commonly known as Gençlerbirliği, is a Turkish

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

based in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

. 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 Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 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 ...

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 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

. The club reached the fourth round of 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 ...

before losing to eventual champions

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

History

Gençlerbirliği were founded in a slightly different way compared to many other football clubs, having been established by students from a

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

, ''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 Muş Province (; ; ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province in the east Anatolia region of Turkey (Türkiye). Its area is 8,718 km2, and its population is 399,202 (2022), down from 453,654 in 2000. The provincial capital is the city of Muş. Ano ...

, 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. 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. Their greatest success domestically were the victories in the former Turkish Football Championship, when they became Turkish champions in

1941 The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, wa ...

and

1946 1946 (Roman numerals, MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1946th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 946th year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th year of the 20th centur ...

. 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 The TFF 1. Lig (), currently referred to as Trendyol 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 ...

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

during spring time see plenty of

poppy A poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. Poppies are herbaceous plants, often grown for their colourful flowers. One species of poppy, '' Papaver somniferum'', is the source of the narcotic drug ...

flowers (''Gelincik'') blooming and Gençlerbirliği selected the red and black of this flower for their colours.

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 Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

and later Chelsea. Another of Gençlerbirliği's young stars Isaac Promise received the 2005–06

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

Individual Youth player of the Year award.Genclerbirligi team profile
turkish-football.com (English) accessed 27 January 2012 Also included was Arda Güler, who was sold to Fenerbahce. Gençlerbirliği's state-of-the-art youth academy is located in Beştepe,

with of training facilities (Beştepe İlhan Cavcav Tesisleri). Gençlerbirliği had been run by

İlhan Cavcav İlhan Cavcav (4 October 1935 – 22 January 2017) was the chairman of Turkish club Gençlerbirliği in Ankara, Turkey for almost 40 years until his death. He was known for his hard negotiation tactics with the big clubs in Turkey and scouting a ...

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

Domestic competitions

* Turkish Football Championship ** Winners (2):

** ''Runners-up (1):''

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

** Winners (2): 1982–83, 1988–89 ** ''Runners-up (1):'' 2018-19 *

** Winners (2): 1986–87, 2000–01 ** ''Runners-up (3):'' 2002–03, 2003–04, 2007–08 * Turkish Super Cup ** ''Runners-up (1):'' 1987 * Prime Minister's Cup ** ''Runners-up (1):'' 1946

Regional competitions

* Ankara Football League ** Winners (10) (record): 1929–30, 1930–31, 1931–32, 1932–33, 1934–35, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1945–46, 1949–50, 1950–51 ** ''Runners-up (7):'' 1926, 1926–27, 1929, 1934, 1936–37, 1942–43, 1947–48 *Ankara Shield ** Winners (3) : 1931, 1935, 1940–41

Others

* TSYD Cup ** Winners (16): 1969, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1993, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2021

European participations

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup

UEFA Cup

UEFA Intertoto Cup

Balkans Cup

UEFA Ranking history

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Most capped players

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" , - ! !Player !Caps !Period , - , 1 , align="left", Tevfik Kutlay , 353 , 1959–72 , - , 2 , align="left", Selçuk Çakmaklı , 336 , 1959–72 , - , 3 , align="left", Avni Okumuş , 317 , 1983–93 , - , 4 , align="left", Zeynel Soyuer , 291 , 1959–71 , - , 5 , align="left", Nihat Baştürk , 279 , 1994–2005 , - , 6 , align="left", Metin Diyadin , 265 , 1988–98 , - , 7 , align="left", Orhan Yüksel , 235 , 1959–66 , - , 8 , align="left",

Mehmet Şimşek Mehmet Şimşek (born 1 January 1967) is a Turkish politician and economist, who has been serving as the List of Finance Ministers of Turkey, Minister of Treasury and Finance since 4 June 2023. He was the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey from 24 ...

, 228 , 1993–2001 , - , 9 , align="left", İhsan Temen , 219 , 1959-66 , - , 10 , align="left", Okan Gedikali , 207 , 1982–91

Top goalscorers

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

Former players

Coaches

* Yüksel Doğanay (1960–70) * Oktay Arıca (1970–71) * Kazım Türesin (1971–72) * Yüksel Doğanay (1972–73) * Fehmi Baştüzel (1973–74) * Tevfik Kutlay (1975) * Avni Bulduk (1975) * Fehmi Baştüzel (1975–76) * Avni Bulduk (1976) * Oktay Arıca (1976–77) * Ruhi Yavuz (1977–78) * Fehmi Baştüzel (1978–81) * Mümtaz Tümer (1981) * Fehmi Baştüzel (1981) * Enver Ürekli (1981) * Ergun Berksoy (1981–95) * Teoman Yamanlar (1981–82) * Kadri Aytaç (1982–83) * Tınaz Tırpan (30 June 1983 – 31 May 1985) * Erkan Kural (1985–86) *

Metin Türel Metin Türel (13 September 1937 – 17 November 2018) was a Turkish football player and coach. Türel coached many teams in Turkey, including the Turkey national team from 1977 to 1978. He started his professional career with Galatasaray and al ...

(1986–87) * Hüsnü Macurni (1987) * Tınaz Tırpan (30 June 1987 – 31 May 1988) * Kadri Aytaç (1988) * İbrahim Aydın (1988) * Teoman Yamanlar (1988) * Erkan Kural (1988–89) * Gündüz Tekin Onay (1989–90) *

(1990) * Jozef Jarabinský (1 July 1990 – 30 June 1991) * Aldoğan Argon (1991–92) * Battal Tokyay (1992) * Valeri Nepomniachi (1 July 1992 – 30 June 1993) * Gurban Berdyýew (1993–94) * Augusto Palacios (1994) * Zafer Göncüler (1994–95) *

(1995) * Georges Heylens (1995–96) *

(1996) * Sadi Tekelioğlu (1996–97) * Teoman Yamanlar (1997) * Luka Peruzović (1 July 1997 – 21 Oct 1997) * Yılmaz Vural (19 Nov 1997 – 30 June 1998) * Karol Pecze (1998–00) * Samet Aybaba (6 Jan 2000 – 11 April 2001) * Hasan Gül (2001) * Walter Meeuws (1 July 2001 – 10 Nov 2001) * Erdoğan Arıca (2001–30 June 2002) *

Ersun Yanal Kazım Ersun Yanal (, born 17 December 1961) is a Turkish football manager and former player. His style has always been attacking football doubled up with tactics unprecedented in Turkish football. He enjoys a very respectable place amongst Turki ...

(1 July 2002 – 30 June 2004) * Erdoğan Arıca (2004) * Oğuz Çetin (1 Oct 2004 – 23 Dec 2004) * Ziya Doğan (1 Jan 2005 – 31 Aug 2005) *

Mesut Bakkal Mesut Bakkal (born 19 March 1964) is a Turkish professional football manager and former player, currently coaching Sakaryaspor. A midfielder, he played for Denizlispor, and later was manager of Ankaragücü, Denizlispor, Gaziantepspor, Gen ...

(Sept 1, 2005 – 30 June 2007) * Fuat Çapa (1 July 2007 – 19 Sep 2007) * Reinhard Stumpf (31 Aug 2007 – 29 Oct 2007) *

Bülent Korkmaz Bülent Korkmaz (born 24 November 1968), colloquially known by his given nicknames "Büyük Kaptan" () and "Cengaver" (), is a Turkish former professional footballer and current manager of TFF 1. Lig club Esenler Erokspor. Korkmaz was a one ...

(29 Oct 2007 – 29 Jan 2008) *

(29 Jan 2008 – 3 Nov 2008) * Samet Aybaba (6 Nov 2008 – 31 May 2009) *

Thomas Doll Thomas Jens Uwe Doll (born 9 April 1966) is a German professional Association football, football manager and a former Association football, football player. As a player, he played as an attacking midfielder for F.C. Hansa Rostock, BFC Dynamo, Ha ...

(1 July 2009 – 17 Oct 2010) * Ralf Zumdick (18 Oct 2010 – 26 Apr 2011) * Giray Bulak (26 May 2011 – 8 June 2011) * Fuat Çapa (11 Jun 2011 – 20 May 2013) * Metin Diyadin (14 Jun 2013 – 20 Oct 2013) * Mehmet Özdilek (22 Oct 2013 – 26 May 2014) * Kemal Özdeş (28 May 2014 – 10 Jul 2014) * Mustafa Kaplan (10 Jul 2014 – 15 Sep 2014) * Osman Nuri Işılar (15 Sep 2014 – 23 Sep 2014) * İrfan Buz (23 Sep 2014 – 16 Feb 2015) *

(17 Feb 2015 – 25 May 2015) * Mustafa Kaplan (25 May 2015 – 9 Jun 2015) * Stuart Baxter (9 Jun 2015 – 24 Aug 2015) * Mehmet Özdilek (1 Sep 2015 – 13 Dec 2015) * Yılmaz Vural (24 Dec 2015 – 29 Dec 2015) * İbrahim Üzülmez (31 Dec 2015 – 7 Nov 2016) * Ümit Özat (8 Nov 2016 – 30 Aug 2016) *

(30 Aug 2017 – 20 Nov 2017) * Ümit Özat (20 Nov 2017 – 15 May 2018) * Sezai Yıldırım (15 May 2018 – 23 May 2018) * Erkan Sözeri (23 May 2018 – 5 Mar 2019) * İbrahim Üzülmez (5 Mar 2019 – 30 May 2019) * Mustafa Kaplan (18 Jun 2019 – 29 Oct 2019) * Hamza Hamzaoğlu (31 Oct 2019 – 29 July 2020) * Mert Nobre (3 Aug 2020 – 10 Nov 2020) * Mustafa Kaplan (14 Nov 2020 – 1 Feb 2021) * Mehmet Altıparmak (1 Feb 2021 - 8 Mar 2021) * Özcan Bizati (12 Mar 2021 - 31 May 2021) * Metin Diyadin (30 Jul 2021 - 12 Sep 2022) * Taşkın Aksoy (27 Sep 2022 - 1 Nov 2022) * Mustafa Dalcı (15 Nov 2022 - 4 Apr 2023) * Sinan Kaloğlu (5 Apr 2023–Present)

Presidents

{, , width="10", , valign="top", {, class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" , - !rowspan="1", Name !rowspan="1", Years , - , align=left, Münif Kemal Ak , align=left, 1923–36 , - , align=left, Saffet Gürol , align=left, 1936–43 , - , align=left, Namık Ambarlıoğlu , align=left, 1943–44 , - , align=left, Fevzi Magat , align=left, 1944–46 , - , align=left, Namık Katoğlu , align=left, 1947–48 , - , align=left, Yusuf Bahri , align=left, 1948–49 , - , align=left, Orhan Şeref Apak , align=left, 1949–50 , - , align=left, Reşat Taşer , align=left, 1950–52 , - , width="30", , valign="top", {, class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" , - !rowspan="1", Name !rowspan="1", Years , - , align=left, Nuri Togay , align=left, 1952–55 , - , align=left, Mümtaz Tarhan , align=left, 1955–57 , - , align=left, Ahmet Salih Korur , align=left, 1957–58 , - , align=left, Orhan Şeref Apak , align=left, 1958–61 , - , align=left, Turhan Ogan , align=left, 1961–63 , - , align=left, İbrahim Sıtkı Hatipoğlu , align=left, 1964–65 , - , align=left, Muslihittin Yılmaz Mete , align=left, 1965–66 , - , align=left,

İsmet Sezgin İsmet Sezgin (6 January 1928 – 7 December 2016) was a Turkish politician who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey and Minister of National Defense from 1997 to 1999, as the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly in 1995, as the Mini ...

, align=left, 1966–67 , - , width="30", , valign="top", {, class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" , - !rowspan="1", Name !rowspan="1", Years , - , align=left, Hadi Özbay , align=left, 1967–68 , - , align=left, Necip Türegen , align=left, 1968–69 , - , align=left, Mehmet Ali Tuzcuoğlu , align=left, 1969–70 , - , align=left, Adil Evrensel , align=left, 1970–72 , - , align=left, Sezai Diblan , align=left, 1972–74 , - , align=left, Hasan Şengel , align=left, 1976–77 , - , align=left,

, align=left, 1977–2017 , - , align=left, Murat Cavcav , align=left, 2017–2021 , - , align=left, Niyazi Akdaş , align=left, 2021–

References

External links

*
Gençlerbirliği
on TFF.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Genclerbirligi S.K. Association football clubs established in 1923 Football clubs in Turkey 1923 establishments in Turkey Yenimahalle, Ankara Süper Lig clubs Sports clubs and teams in Ankara