Şenol Güneş

Şenol Güneş — Biography

Şenol Güneş, born on 1 June 1952 in Trabzon, went on from a goalkeeping career to become one of Turkish football's most successful coaches. He joined Trabzonspor in 1972, promoted the club to the top flight in 1974, and won six league titles and four Turkish Cups with the team; in the 1978-79 season he set a Turkish record by going 1,110 minutes without conceding. He retired from playing in 1987 having made a record 611 official appearances for Trabzonspor.

He moved into coaching at Trabzonspor in 1988, later worked at Boluspor and İstanbulspor, and returned to Trabzonspor from 1993 to 1997. In 2000 he took charge of the Turkey national team and led the country to its first World Cup appearance since 1954, finishing third in 2002 in what remains Turkish football's greatest achievement; he repeated the feat with third place at the 2003 Confederations Cup and was awarded the State Medal of Distinguished Service. He returned to Trabzonspor twice more (2005, 2009) and coached South Korea's FC Seoul, then took charge of Beşiktaş in 2015, winning back-to-back league titles in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and becoming the only Turkish coach to finish a UEFA Champions League group stage unbeaten and in first place, in 2017-18.

He returned to the national team for a second spell in 2019, coached Beşiktaş again in 2022, and returned to Trabzonspor for a fifth time in 2024. Having stepped back from active coaching, Güneş remained a prominent voice in Turkish football in 2026, publicly commenting on the national team's performance and addressing transfer speculation linking him to Beşiktaş.