Ersin Destanoğlu

Ersin Destanoğlu — Biography

Ersin Destanoğlu is a goalkeeper born on January 1, 2001, in the Gaziosmanpaşa district of Istanbul. He started out in football at the age of eleven at Bayrampaşa's academy, moved up to Beşiktaş's youth side a year later, spent 2013-2017 there, and put pen to paper on his first professional contract with the club on September 8, 2017.

He rose to become Beşiktaş's number-one goalkeeper in the summer of 2020 once Loris Karius had left, making his first-team debut on June 13, 2020, in a 2-1 defeat to Antalyaspor in the Süper Lig. In November 2020 a coming-together with an opposing forward saw him sent off, making him the first Beşiktaş goalkeeper shown a red card since Rüştü Reçber in 2007; the following April he denied Swedish forward Isaac Thelin from the penalty spot, becoming the first goalkeeper to save a league penalty since the 2015-16 season. With the club he won the league title in 2020-21, the Turkish Cup twice (2020-21, 2023-24) and the Turkish Super Cup twice (2021, 2024), and earned 23 caps combined across Turkey's U16, U17, U18, U19 and U21 sides, besides later being called into senior national-team squads.

In July 2026, after thirteen years at Beşiktaş, he closed that chapter and signed a three-year deal with UAE Pro League club Al-Jazira, continuing his career in the Gulf. He married Neşe Sevdik Kurtovic in August 2026.