Gençlerbirliği S.K.

Gençlerbirliği

Full name	Gençlerbirliği Spor Kulübü
Nickname(s)	Gençler (The Youth) Ankara Rüzgârı (The Wind of Ankara) Alkaralar (The Red and Black)
Founded	14 March 1923; 101 years ago (1923-03-14)
Ground	Eryaman Stadium[1]
Capacity	20,560[2]
President	Osman Sungur[1]
Head coach	Recep Karatepe
League	TFF First League
2023–24	TFF First League, 8th of 19
Website	http://www.genclerbirligi.org.tr/
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Gençlerbirliği Spor Kulübü (pronounced Turkish pronunciation: [ɟentʃˈlæɾbiɾli.i]), commonly known as Gençlerbirliği, is a Turkish sports club based in Ankara. 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 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 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. The club reached the fourth round of the UEFA Cup before losing to eventual champions Valencia.

Gençlerbirliği were founded in a slightly different way compared to many other football clubs, having been established by students from a high school, 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, 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.^[3]

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.^[4] Their greatest success domestically were the victories in the former Turkish Football Championship, when they became Turkish champions in 1941 and 1946.^[5] 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.

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.^[6]
• The outskirts of Ankara during spring time see plenty of poppy flowers (Gelincik) blooming and Gençlerbirliği selected the red and black of this flower for their colours.

Gençlerbirliği's arch-rival are the neighbouring club Ankaragücü and games between the clubs are considered as the "Derby of the Capital".

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 and later Chelsea. Another of Gençlerbirliği's young stars Isaac Promise received the 2005–06 Super League Individual Youth player of the Year award.^[6] Also included was Arda Güler, who was sold to Fenerbahce.

Gençlerbirliği's state-of-the-art youth academy is located in Beştepe, Ankara with 50 acres (200,000 m²) of training facilities (Beştepe İlhan Cavcav Tesisleri).

Gençlerbirliği had been run by İlhan Cavcav 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.

• Turkish Football Championship
  • Winners (2): 1941, 1946
  • Runners-up (1): 1950
• TFF First League
  • Winners (2): 1982–83, 1988–89
  • Runners-up (1): 2018-19
• Turkish Cup
  • 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

• 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

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

As of 30 September 2004

Competition	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	2	0	0	2	1	4	–3
UEFA Cup	14	6	4	4	17	11	+6
UEFA Intertoto Cup	4	2	0	2	10	7	+3
UEFA Total	20	8	4	8	28	22	+6
Balkans Cup	6	0	1	5	3	10	–7
Overall Total	26	8	5	13	31	32	–1

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1987–88	First Round	Dinamo Minsk	1–2	0–2	1–4

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2001–02	First Round	Halmstad	1–1	0–1	1–2
2003–04	First Round	Blackburn Rovers	3–1	1–1	4–2
	Second Round	Sporting CP	1–1	3–0	4–1
	Third Round	Parma	3–0	1–0	4–0
	Fourth Round	Valencia	1–0	0–2 (aet)	1–2
2004–05	Second Qualifying Round	Rijeka	1–0	1–2	2–2 (a)
	First Round	Egaleo	1–1	0–1	1–2

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1995	Group Stage (Group 11)	Strasbourg	—	1–4	3rd
		Tirol Innsbruck	—	2–3
		Hapoel Petah Tikva	4–0	—
		Floriana	3–0	—

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1967–68	Group Stage (Group A)	Beroe Stara Zagora	0–2	0–1	4th
		Vllaznia Shkodër	1–1	0–1
		Farul Constanța	1–2	1–3

As of 2009

Season	Rank	Points	Ref.
2002	157	15.362	[7]
2003	162	15.495	[8]
2004	88	23.656	[9]
2005	94	23.872	[10]
2006	106	22.634	[11]
2007	106	21.791	[12]
2008	100	23.469	[13]
2009	171	7.445	[14]

As of 28 August 2024^[15][16]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  TUR Ebrar Aydın 2 FW  SEN Moussa Djitté 4 DF  TUR Abdullah Şahindere 5 MF  NGA Peter Etebo 6 MF  TUR Rahman Buğra Çağıran 7 MF  TUR Metehan Mimaroğlu 8 MF  TUR Samed Onur 9 FW  MLI Mustapha Yatabaré 10 FW  TUR Mete Kaan Demir (on loan from Eyüpspor) 11 FW  TUR Çağrı Fedai (on loan from Fenerbahçe) 12 DF  TUR Oğuzhan Berber 13 GK  TUR Orkun Özdemir 14 MF  POL Michał Nalepa 15 DF  SVN Žan Žužek

No. Pos. Nation Player 17 DF  TUR Yasin Güreler 18 GK  TUR Erhan Erentürk 19 FW  TUR Gökhan Altıparmak 20 MF  TUR Mikail Okyar 21 MF  SWE Jimmy Durmaz 22 DF  TUR Berat Can Sebat 23 MF  SYR Aias Aosman 24 DF  TUR Alperen Babacan 53 DF  TUR Taha Necati Atay 61 MF  TUR Ensar Kemaloğlu 88 DF  TUR Fıratcan Üzüm 89 FW  BRA Amilton 90 DF  TUR Sinan Osmanoğlu 91 FW  SWE Elias Durmaz

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  TUR Atalay Gökçe (at Karaman until 30 June 2025) — DF  TUR Arda Çağan Çelik (at Polatlı 1926 until 30 June 2025) — DF  TUR Musa Şahindere (at Sarıyer until 30 June 2025) — MF  TUR Eralp Aydın (at 24 Erzincanspor until 30 June 2025) — FW  TUR Arda Akgül (at Zonguldakspor until 30 June 2025)

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  TUR Baran Başyiğit (at Polatlı 1926 until 30 June 2025) — FW  TUR Emirkan Demir (at Polatlı 1926 until 30 June 2025) — FW  TUR Kağan Özkan (at Düzcespor until 30 June 2025) — FW  TUR Arda Tuzcu (at Batman Petrolspor until 30 June 2025)

	Player	Caps	Period
1	Tevfik Kutlay	353	1959–72
2	Selçuk Çakmaklı	336	1959–72
3	Avni Okumuş	317	1983–93
4	Zeynel Soyuer	291	1959–71
5	Nihat Baştürk	279	1994–2005
6	Metin Diyadin	265	1988–98
7	Orhan Yüksel	235	1959–66
8	Mehmet Şimşek	228	1993–2001
9	İhsan Temen	219	1959-66
10	Okan Gedikali	207	1982–91

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

Name Years Münif Kemal Ak 1923–36 Saffet Gürol 1936–43 Namık Ambarlıoğlu 1943–44 Fevzi Magat 1944–46 Namık Katoğlu 1947–48 Yusuf Bahri 1948–49 Orhan Şeref Apak 1949–50 Reşat Taşer 1950–52

Name Years Nuri Togay 1952–55 Mümtaz Tarhan 1955–57 Ahmet Salih Korur 1957–58 Orhan Şeref Apak 1958–61 Turhan Ogan 1961–63 İbrahim Sıtkı Hatipoğlu 1964–65 Muslihittin Yılmaz Mete 1965–66 İsmet Sezgin 1966–67

Name Years Hadi Özbay 1967–68 Necip Türegen 1968–69 Mehmet Ali Tuzcuoğlu 1969–70 Adil Evrensel 1970–72 Sezai Diblan 1972–74 Hasan Şengel 1976–77 İlhan Cavcav 1977–2017 Murat Cavcav 2017–2021 Niyazi Akdaş 2021–

• Hacettepe SK, the reserve team of Gençlerbirliği.

• Bora, Tanıl (2001). Ankara Rüzgarı. Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları ISBN-10 9753333935 (in Turkish)

• Official website
• Gençlerbirliği on TFF.org