Arif Peçenek

Arif Peçenek — Biography

Arif Peçenek was born on 10 October 1959 in Ankara. A goalkeeper, he started his career at Güneşspor in 1976 before moving on to Ankara Şekerspor, MKE Ankaragücü, İstanbulspor and Adana Demirspor. His most notable spell was at MKE Ankaragücü, where he made more than 200 official appearances, ranking among the club's most-capped goalkeepers, and his form there earned him a place in the senior national team, for which he won 23 caps over the course of his career. He hung up his gloves at Adana Demirspor in the summer of 1995.

After retiring as a player, Peçenek moved into coaching, first serving as assistant to head coach Ali Osman Renklibay at Vanspor, Adanaspor and, later, Vanspor again. He took his first head coaching job with second-division side Türk Telekomspor in the 1999-2000 season, winning the league title with the club, and went on to manage Körfez Belediyespor, Ankara Şekerspor and Kızılcahamam Belediyespor. Between 2005 and 2010 he served as youth academy development coordinator at MKE Ankaragücü. In November 2012 he took charge of PTT First League side TKİ Tavşanlı Linyitspor, a post he still held when he died of a heart attack in Ankara on 29 January 2013; he is buried in his family's home village of Yukarı Karaören in Kızılcahamam.