Gençlerbirliği

Full name	Gençlerbirliği Spor Kulübü
Nickname(s)	Ankara Rüzgârı (The Wind of Ankara)
Founded	March 14, 1923
Ground	19 Mayıs Stadyumu, Ankara, Turkey (Capacity: 19,209)
Chairman	İlhan Cavcav
Manager	Thomas Doll
League	Süper Lig
2008-09	Süper Lig, 15th
Home colours Away colours

Gençlerbirliği Spor Kulübü (pronounced [ɟeŋtʃˈlɛɾbirliː]) is a Turkish football club from the capital, Ankara, playing in the Süper Lig. The name translates literally as "Youth Union".

[edit] History

Gençlerbirliği was founded in a slightly different way to many other football clubs, having been established by students from the high school, Ankara Erkek Lisesi (Sultani Mektebi). 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 March 14, 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 teams were students he chose the name 'Youth Union'. They elected Sarı Ziya's father Faik Bey as their first chairman.[1]

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 rebel players this victory forged the identity of their new team.

[edit] Colors

There are two rumors about how Gençlerbirliği got its team colors, black and red:

• The young students went to a local haberdashers and the only available colors were black and red. They purchased these colors to sew their own kit.
• The outskirts of Ankara during spring time sees plenty of Poppy flowers (Gelincik) blooming and Gençlerbirliği selected the red and black of this flower for its colors. Gençlerbirliği merchandise in its store is usually called Gelincik by its supporters.

[edit] Rivalry

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

[edit] Youth academy and scouting

Gençlerbirliği has always been one of the teams in Turkey most notable for its talented young footballers that it procures 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 Promise Isaac received the 2005-2006 Turkcell Super League Individual Youth player of the year award.

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

Gençlerbirligi has been run by the current president İlhan Cavcav since 1977. 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.

[edit] Recent rise and UEFA Cup run

For the last ten years the team has consistently finished in the top half of the table, and in the 2002/2003 season they were in contention for the championship until a month before the end of the season. The next season, they played in the UEFA Cup under coach Ersun Yanal. The young team eliminated teams like Parma FC, Blackburn Rovers and Sporting Clube de Portugal. Finally they were eliminated in the fourth round of the UEFA Cup by eventual winners Valencia. In 2004/05 they finished fifth in the league, but with a large number of their most talented players leaving the club, they were again forced to confront the challenges of replacing them before the start of the next season.

[edit] Achievements

• Turkish Football Championship:
  • Winners (2): 1941, 1946
  • Runners-up (1): 1951
• Turkish Cup:
  • Winners (2): 1987, 2001
• Ankara Football League:
  • Winners (10): 1929-30, 1930-31, 1931-32, 1932-33, 1934-35, 1939-40, 1940-41, 1945-46, 1949-50, 1950-51
  • Runners-up (3): 2003, 2004, 2008
• UEFA Cup:
  • Fourth Round (1): 2003-04

[edit] Players

[edit] Current squad

No. Position Player 1 GK Serdar Kulbilge 5 DF İlhan Eker (Captain) 6 MF Kerem Şeras 8 MF Labinot Harbuzi 9 FW Kahê 10 MF Sandro 11 FW Mustafa Pektemek 12 MF Tozo 15 FW Sinan Ayrancı 16 FW Patiyo Tambwe 17 MF Hurşit Meriç 18 DF Jacques Momha 19 FW Bruce Djite

No. Position Player 21 MF Burhan Eşer 26 DF Mahmut Boz 28 DF Ivan Radeljić 33 DF Efe Halil Özarslan 40 MF Cem Can 52 MF Sezai Zehiroğlu 58 GK Özkan Karabulut 61 MF Bilal Çubukçu 67 DF Orhan Şam 69 DF Murat Kalkan 77 MF Ferhat Kiraz 88 DF Aykut Demir 99 GK Ulaş Güler

[edit] Coaching Staff

Position Staff Head Coach Thomas Doll First Assistant Coach Ralf Zumdick Assistant Coach Serdar Dayat Assistant Coach Cengiz Demirel Goalkeeping Coach Ümit Levent Zorluer Youth Team Head Coach Osman Nuri Işılar Youth Team Assistant Coach Tanser Aydın

Position Staff Youth A, DSGL; Coach Osman Nuri Işılar Youth B, U-17; Coach Tuncay Mocan Youth C, 15 age; Coach Tuncay Mocan Youth C, 14 age; Coach Tanser Aydın Mini, 13 & 12 age; Coach Yücel Koçak Minimini, 11 age; Coach Volkan Arat Minimini, 10 age; Coach Kürşad Koca

Source: Gençlerbirliği SK Official Website

[edit] Gençlerbirliği, Player of the Year

Year Winner 2004 Ali Tandoğan 2005 Erkan Özbey 2006 Lars Fredrik Risp 2007 Erkan Özbey 2008 Burhan Eşer 2009 Mehmet Nas

Source: Gençlerbirliği statistics and news site, in Turkish

[edit] Gençlerbirliği, Most Capped Players

	Player	Caps	Period
1.	Tevfik Kutlay	341	1959 - 1972
2.	Selçuk Çakmaklı	334	1959 - 1972
3.	Avni Okumuş	317	1983 - 1993
4.	Zeynel Soyuer	290	1959 - 1970
5.	Metin Diyadin	286	1988 - 1998
6.	Nihat Baştürk	279	1994 - 2004
7.	Okan Gedikali	274	1981 - 1991
8.	Cemalettin Sakallıoğlu	235	1975 - 1984
9.	Orhan Yüksel	235	1993 - 2001
10.	Mehmet Şimşek	232	1959 - 1966

Source: Gençlerbirliği statistics and news site, in Turkish

[edit] Gençlerbirliği, Top Goal Scorers

	Player	Goals (Caps)	Period
1	Andre Kona N'Gole	73 (147)	1993 - 2001
2	Avni Okumuş	72 (317)	1983 - 1993
3	Orhan Yüksel	70 (232)	1959 - 1966
4	Ümit Karan	60 (150)	1997 - 2001
5	Souleymane Youla	56 (134)	2001 - 2005
6	Muammer Nurlu	48 (150)	1983 - 1989
7	Zeynel Soyuer	48 (290)	1959 - 1970
8	Abdullah Çevrim	47 (151)	1961 - 1966
9	Asım Gündüz	46 (124)	1972 - 1978
10	Tevfik Kutlay	43 (337)	1959 - 1972

Source: Gençlerbirliği statistics and news site, in Turkish

[edit] Former players

• See Category:Gençlerbirliği players

[edit] Managers

Source: Gençlerbirliği statistics and news site, in Turkish

[edit] Presidents

Source: Gençlerbirliği SK Official Website

[edit] Further reading

• (Turkish) Ankara Rüzgarı. Kendi Yayinlari 2003 ISBN 9759242206 author: Tanıl Bora.

[edit] See also

• Hacettepe Spor Kulübü Reserve team of Gençlerbirliği in Turkcell Super League.

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Gençlerbirliği statistics and news site in Turkish
• English site about Ankara football and Gençlerbirliği
• Gençlerbirliği fan site in Turkish
• Gençlerbirliği fan site in Turkish