Cemal Kütahya

Cemal Kütahya — Biography

Cemal Kütahya was a Turkish handball player who captained both the indoor and the beach handball national teams and combined sport with teaching. He is best known for beach handball, where he was top scorer at two European Championships in a row. He died in Antakya in February 2023.

In his youth a teacher steered him toward the javelin; he competed for five years and won a Balkan title and a European Youth Championship silver. He came to handball late, at the suggestion of a lecturer at Akdeniz University's School of Physical Education and Sports, and wore the national shirt for the first time three months later. He played two years for Ankara İl Özel İdare, then for Yeditepe and five years for Ankaraspor, before moving to Antalyaspor. With Qatar's Al-Shamal he won the 2020 Arab Champions League; after Beykoz Belediyespor he played in Romania for CSU Suceava and, in his final season, for Hatay Büyükşehir Belediyespor.

In beach handball he won bronze with Turkey at the 2015 Mediterranean Beach Games. He scored 88 goals in 10 matches at the 2019 European Championship and 151 at the 2021 edition, topping the scoring charts both times and going down as the Turkish athlete to do so in consecutive tournaments. He made more than 150 appearances for the national teams across indoor and beach handball and also volunteered as a physical education teacher. The Turkish Handball Federation played the 2023 Men's Super League as a season carrying his name, and a memorial forest was opened in his name in October 2023.