Gökmen Özdenak (born 22 June 1947) is a Turkish former

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 as a striker. He is best known for his stint 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 ...

, and is known by his nickname Ayı Gökmen (English, "Gökmen the Bear"). He represented the

Turkey national football team The Turkey national football team (), recognized as Türkiye by FIFA and UEFA, represents Turkey in men's international Association football, football matches. The team is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation (), the governing body for ...

Professional career

Özdenak begun his footballing career with

İstanbulspor İstanbulspor Kulübü is a Turkish association football, football and sports club founded by Istanbul High School students in 1926. In 2004–05, they were relegated from the Turkish Süper Lig (Super League) to the TFF First League. For many d ...

in the Turkish

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 ...

. Two years later, he transferred to

and helped them win 4 Süper Lig titles as he played there for 13 years.

Outside football

After his footballing career, Özdenak begun commentating football with former footballer

Ziya Şengül Ziya Şengül (1 July 1944 – 26 February 2023) was a Turkish footballer who played as a midfielder. He is remembered for his commanding role during his career at Turkish club Fenerbahçe and also for his great effort at the famous draw of the ...

Personal life

Özdenak was born into a sporting family, as his brothers Yasin and

Doğan Doğan is both a masculine Turkish given name and a Turkish surname meaning ''Falcon''. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Doğan Abukay, Turkish experimental physicist and academic * Doğan Akhanlı (1957–2021) Turkish-German wri ...

were also professional footballers.

Honours

;Galatasaray *

TSYD Cup The TSYD Cup (, Turkish Sports Writers Association Cup) was a friendly football competition in Turkey. The tournament started in 1963. It was played throughout six regions in Turkey: Adana, Ankara, Istanbul, İzmir, Konya, and Trabzon. The competi ...

(3): 1968-69, 1970-1971, 1977-1978 *

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 ...

(2): 1968-69, 1971-72 *

(4): 1968-69, 1970-71, 1971-72, 1972-73 *

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 ...

(2):

1972–73 Year 197 ( CXCVII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magius and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 950 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 197 for this y ...

, 1975–76 * Prime Minister's Cup (2): 1974–1975, 1978–1979

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Özdenak, Gökmen 1947 births Living people Footballers from Istanbul Turkish men's footballers Turkey men's international footballers Turkey men's youth international footballers Men's association football forwards Galatasaray S.K. footballers İstanbulspor footballers Süper Lig players 20th-century Turkish sportsmen