Cenk İşler

Cenk İşler — Biography

Cenk İşler (born February 25, 1974, in Cologne) is a retired Turkish international footballer, born in Germany to parents originally from Samsun, who played as a forward; he is 1.80 m tall. He began his football career in Turkey at Samsunspor in the 1992-93 season, making 112 appearances and scoring 35 goals for the club while winning the First League title with it that same season. In 1999 he transferred to Adanaspor for a fee of $2.5 million.

He later played for Manisaspor, winning another First League title with that club in 2008-09, and moved to Kasımpaşa in 2009-10. At the start of 2010-11, with the backing of Galip Asal, he returned to Samsunspor and signed a one-year sponsorship deal with the Italian sportswear brand Errea. In the same season's winter transfer window he moved to Bucaspor and returned to the Süper Lig. He scored 137 Süper Lig goals, making him one of the top scorers of his era and one of the few players to join the "100 club" of players with over 100 league goals.

He transferred back to Kasımpaşa ahead of the 2011-12 season, made 4 appearances there, and retired before the 2012-13 season. Called up to the Turkey national team three times, he made his only cap in a 2-0 win over Moldova on September 2, 2000. Years after his career ended he remained in the public eye, making the news in January 2026 when, described as a "legendary striker", he visited Abdullah Deniz, the president of the Çanakkale Commodity Exchange.