Koray Günter

Koray Günter — Biography

Koray Günter is a centre-back of Turkish descent who grew up in Germany. His best years came at Galatasaray, where he won three Turkish Cups and two Süper Lig titles, and he has since played in Italy, the United Arab Emirates, again in Turkey, and in Saudi Arabia, where he signed for Al-Okhdood in 2025.

Born in Höxter as the second son of an immigrant family, he started at local club SV Höxter aged seven, moved to SpVg Brakel in 2006 and from there was taken into the Borussia Dortmund academy. He was originally a forward and was retrained as a defender at Dortmund. He made his professional debut for Dortmund II against Karlsruher SC on 28 August 2012, and on 5 October 2013 he came on for Nuri Şahin against Borussia Mönchengladbach to play his first Bundesliga match for the senior side. At youth level he first played four games for Turkey's under-16s before choosing Germany; he was runner-up at the 2011 European Under-17 Championship, took third place at the 2011 Under-17 World Cup and scored three goals there. He also later played for Turkey's under-21 side.

In January 2014 he moved to Galatasaray for 2.5 million euros, and with the club won the Süper Lig in 2014-15 and 2017-18, the Turkish Cup in three seasons, and the Super Cup in 2015 and 2016. He went to Genoa in 2018 and Hellas Verona in 2019, and also played for Sampdoria, Kalba, Fatih Karagümrük and Göztepe. He is married to Betty Taube-Günter.