Said Altınordu (born Said Bey, 24 July 1912 – 17 November 1978), alternatively spelled Sait Altınordu, was a Turkish international

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 ...

. Being a notable one-club man, Altınordu remains one of the most symbolic footballers of the Turkish city of

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

, along with

Vahap Özaltay Vahap Özaltay or Vehâb Özaltay (born, Beşir oğlu Vahap; in 1907, 1908 or 1909 – 10 June 1965) was a Turkish international Association football, footballer and track and field athlete. He is notable for being the first Turkish player to ...

of Altay S.K. and Fuat Göztepe of Göztepe S.K. His identification with Altınordu S.K. led him to choose the official name of the club as his surname, following the

Surname Law The Surname Law () of the Republic of Turkey is a law adopted on 21 June 1934, requiring all citizens of Turkey to adopt the use of fixed, hereditary surnames. Prior to 1934, Turkish families in the major urban centres had names by which they were ...

of Turkey enacted in 1934. Altınordu spent his entire career at Altınordu S.K., winning 6

İzmir Football League The İzmir Football League () was founded as a regional football league for İzmir based clubs in 1924. In the period from 1924 to 1935, the winners of the İzmir League qualified for the former Turkish Football Championship. In 1937 the first na ...

titles; he is widely considered to be the club's greatest player of all time. Altınordu also won 4 caps for Turkey between 1932 and 1937, and was part of their squad at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

; no other Altınordu S.K. players were called up to the Turkey national team for 78 years, until

Çağlar Söyüncü Çağlar Söyüncü (; born 23 May 1996) is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe and the Turkey national team. Söyüncü's first senior professional team was the Turkish second division ...

was invited in 2016. In general, Altınordu is reported to have been primarily deployed as a defender, but he was also capable of scoring goals; he is credited with 29 goals, 13 of which were scored during the 1937 Millî Küme campaign, making him the league's top scorer that year.

Playing style

According to Nimet, Altınordu's wife, he used to train by himself at the Alsancak Stadium, practicing his shooting abilities. According to Erdoğan Sungur, an İzmir-based author who saw Altınordu play live, Altınordu was capable of "making feints, producing 'delicious' shoots, and having a 'great' football intelligence."

Legacy

Altınordu was the role model of

Metin Oktay Metin Oktay (2 February 1936 – 13 September 1991) nicknamed the Crownless King () by Galatasaray S.K. (football team), Galatasaray fans, was a Turkish people, Turkish association football, footballer and one of the most successful goal score ...

, a prolific goalscorer for both

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 the Turkish national team. The youth and academy facilities of Altınordu S.K., located in Yeşilyurt County, are named in Altınordu's honor. In 2016, one of the 15 newly launched ferries of İzmir was named after Altınordu following an online-public poll. A statue of Altınordu was opened in front of

Alsancak Terminal Alsancak railway station () is one of the two main railway terminals in İzmir and is the second-oldest railway station in Turkey, after Kemer, being completed in 1858. The statue depicts the moment of Altınordu taking the winning shot against Eskişehir Demirspor during the 1935 Turkish Football Championship semi-final game. Despite the rivalry between their clubs, Altınordu and

, who was an Altay S.K. icon, were best friends.

Honours

; Altınordu S.K. *

(6): 1926–27, 1931–32, 1934–35, 1935–36, 1939–40, 1944–45

Individual

* National Division top scorer (1):

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Feb ...

(13 goals)

References

; Footnotes ; Citations

Bibliography

; Books *

External links

Profile
at TFF {{DEFAULTSORT:Altinordu, Said 1912 births 1978 deaths Footballers from Istanbul Turkish men's footballers Men's association football defenders Altınordu F.K. players Süper Lig players Turkey men's international footballers Footballers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Turkey 20th-century Turkish sportsmen