Serdar Bali

Serdar Bali — Biography

Serdar Bali was a midfielder in Trabzonspor's championship years between 1975 and 1980 and was part of four of the club's six league titles; he was also in the Beşiktaş squad that won the title in 1981-82 after a 15-year wait. After retiring he remained close to the Trabzonspor community.

He was born in Istanbul because his father was playing football at Beykoz, and at two he moved with his family to Trabzon, where he began playing at Sebat Gençlik while at Trabzon High School. He joined Trabzonspor at the start of 1975-76, made 101 appearances and scored 13 goals in five seasons, and won four league titles along with two Turkish Cups, the Super Cup and the Prime Minister's Cup. In July 1980 he moved to Beşiktaş for 8 million lira; during the 1981-82 title season he broke his leg in the match against Galatasaray and never regained his earlier level. He was loaned to Karagümrük for a season, returned to Trabzonspor in July 1985, was loaned to Denizlispor, and ended his career with a testimonial between Trabzonspor and Beşiktaş on August 7, 1988.

On February 16, 1977, he first pulled on a youth national shirt against Bulgaria's under-21 side and scored Turkey's only goal; on September 23, 1978, he made his senior debut against Italy, and he was capped eight times in all. He went into business in Istanbul and from 1996 to 2002 worked in Trabzonspor's management as a reserve board member and football branch manager. Since 2007 he has been a columnist at the newspaper Star, and he also heads the Trabzonspor professional footballers' association.