Erhan Önal

Erhan Önal — Biography

Erhan Önal is remembered as the first Turkish-immigrant footballer to play in the Bundesliga, and in Turkey as a Galatasaray centre-back. He was nicknamed "Papaz Erhan" (Priest Erhan) because of his long beard, and he died in İzmir on 16 March 2021.

He moved to Germany with his family at the age of seven, started in Munich at Türk Gücü, joined Bayern Munich's amateur side in 1973 and was promoted to the first team in 1976-77. At Bayern he made 18 Bundesliga appearances, scored once against Kaiserslautern and played in the European Cup quarter-finals against Dynamo Kyiv, in a squad that included Sepp Maier, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Gerd Müller. From 1978 he played for Standard Liège in Belgium, winning the Belgian Cup in 1980-81 and the league in 1981-82 and 1982-83. In between he went to Fenerbahçe and played in Turkey for the first time in 1982, but stayed only briefly and went back to Liège.

It was at Galatasaray, which he joined in 1985, that he made his name in Turkey: two league titles in 1986-87 and 1987-88, the Federation Cup in 1990-91, and a farewell to football in that shirt on 22 July 1992. He earned seven caps for the national team between 1979 and 1981, and his goal against Wales was his only one in international football. Afterwards he worked as a football agent, spent a short spell as sporting director at Göztepe and appeared as a pundit on the television programme Gol. His daughter Bige Önal is an actress.