Cenk Gönen

Cenk Gönen — Biography

Cenk Gönen is a goalkeeper who came through Göztepe's youth system, went on to keep goal for both Beşiktaş and Galatasaray and made his senior Turkey debut in 2012; he is the nephew of the former Turkey goalkeeper Ali Artuner. He won the Turkish Cup with Beşiktaş in 2010-11 and the Turkish Cup and Super Cup with Galatasaray in 2015-16 and 2016.

He joined Göztepe in 1999, turned professional at 16 and moved to Denizlispor in 2005. On loan at Altay in the second half of 2007-08 he got regular football for the first time, and he made his Süper Lig debut against Galatasaray on August 23, 2008. In 2010-11 Beşiktaş signed him for 1 million euros plus Emre Özkan; in his first season he played more than Rüştü Reçber and Hakan Arıkan. In 2011-12 he was Carlos Carvalhal's first-choice keeper and played 37 official matches, and in the following years he was mostly a reserve. In 2015 he joined Galatasaray on a three-year contract and in July 2017 he signed a three-year deal with Málaga. Later he played for Alanyaspor, Denizlispor and Kayserispor, for Esenler Erokspor, with whom he won the TFF Second League in 2023-24, and in 2024 for Çorluspor 1947.

After playing for Turkey's age-group sides from under-15 to under-21, he made his senior debut in the starting line-up against Georgia on May 24, 2012; two days later, against Finland, he came on for Rüştü Reçber, who was retiring from international football.