Gençlerbirliği S.K.

 

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

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, some limited exceptions apply. 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, some limited exceptions apply. 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)

• 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