Feridun Buğeker

Feridun Buğeker — Biography

Born Feridun İsmail Buğeker (also recorded in some sources as Ferudun İsmail Bugaker) on 5 April 1933 in Istanbul, he died in the same city on 6 October 2014 and was buried at Feriköy Cemetery. A forward by position, he was both a Turkish international footballer and an architect, spending most of his club career with Fenerbahçe (1950-55 and 1961-63), also turning out for Göztepe, and earning a place in Turkey's squad at the 1954 FIFA World Cup finals.

During his first spell at Fenerbahçe he studied at Istanbul Technical University's Faculty of Architecture, where he met and studied under the German architect Paul Bonatz, who had been appointed architectural adviser to the Ministry of National Education's Technical Education Undersecretariat while also teaching at the same faculty. When Bonatz returned to Germany to take up a post at the University of Stuttgart, he brought Buğeker along, giving him first-hand exposure to the internationally renowned Stuttgart School of architecture. While there, he also played for the city's second club, Stuttgarter Kickers, becoming one of the first Turkish footballers to play in Germany.