Ahmet Yıldırım Benayyat (born 18 October 1945), better known as Yıldo, is a famous Turkish

showman Showman can have a variety of meanings, usually by context and depending on the country. Australia Travelling Funfair, showmen ("showies") are people who run amusement and side show equipment at regional shows, state capital shows, events ...

(talk show host),

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, retired

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 ...

and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player.

Biography

Early life

Yıldo was born in

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

, Turkey. He studied high school in several different cities of

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 ...

due to his father's job. He completed his university education in Istanbul Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences (

Marmara University Marmara University (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Marmara Üniversitesi'') is a Public university, public research university in Istanbul, Turkey. The university, named after the Sea of Marmara, was founded as a university in 1982. However, its ...

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

department in 1973. Sport audiences first heard his name when he broke the record for the 400 meter hurdles in a Turkish youth athletic championship in 1963. When still a student in high school, he transferred to the Turkish sports club Boluspor as a

player in 1965. Then he transferred to the famous Istanbul sport club

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 ...

as a

player in 1967. His nickname (Yıldo, a diminutive of his name Yıldırım) was bestowed on him by his friend and teammate Yavuz Işılay. Yıldo once more returned to professional

, playing for

Şekerspor Turanspor is a sports club in located in Ankara, Turkey. The football club played in the Turkish Regional Amateur League, Bölgesel Amatör Lig before its dissolution. History The team was founded in 1947 under the name Şekerspor; It kept thi ...

,Galatasaray Spor Kulübü Resmi Sitesi - SÜPER LİG
Istanbulspor,

Sarıyer Sarıyer () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 177 km2 and its population is 350,454 (2022). It is on the northeastern part of Istanbul's European side. Sarıyer al ...

and

Gaziantepspor Gaziantepspor was a Turkish football club located in the city of Gaziantep. Formed in 1969 and dissolved in 2020, Gaziantepspor were nicknamed the ''Şahinler'' (The Falcons). The club colours were black and red, and they played their home matc ...

After 1980

Following his football career, he worked in the plastic bag production sector in the 1980s. He was one of the protagonists at plastic bag sector in Turkey in the 1980s. In 1993, he entered the media sector with a show on Star TV in which he was the host of a quiz show called ''Süper Turnike''. He then began to produce shows on various Turkish television channels. He became Turkey's first showman of nighttime television. He captured the attention of Turkish TV audiences and was known for coining the catchphrase ''Kafadan Koparma'' (breaking off your head), a condition of hysterical overexcitement. The phrase became a common Turkish idiom. He is also famous for his striking laugh. Yıldo has acted in several soap-operas and films. His most recent television appearance has been participation in a 2007 celebrity ice skating competition ''Buzda Dans'' (''

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series broadcast from 2006 to 2014 and then from 2018 to 2025. It was presented by Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern. Other previous hosts include Phillip Schofield and Christine Lampard. The series ...

'').

Career

Film Actor * Kutsal Damacana, 2007 * Aynı Çatı Altında, 2006 * Kızma Birader, 2005 * Biz Boşanıyoruz, 2004 * Dansöz, 2000 * Hemşo, 2000 * Keloğlan, 1999 Football Player *

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 ...

* Boluspor * Sarıyer *

Volleyball Player *

* Boluspor

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yildo Galatasaray S.K. footballers Turkish male film actors 1945 births Living people Footballers from Istanbul Men's association football midfielders Turkish men's footballers 20th-century Turkish sportsmen