İlyas Tüfekçi

İlyas Tüfekçi — Biography

İlyas Tüfekçi (born 3 February 1960 in Istanbul) is a retired Turkish international footballer and later football manager, regarded as one of the early examples of players developed in Germany before being brought into Turkish football. During his playing career he turned out for VfB Stuttgart and Schalke 04 in Germany and for Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray and Zeytinburnuspor in Turkey; his displays in Germany earned him a place in the Turkish national team, and every one of his international goals came while he was on Fenerbahçe's books.

Tüfekçi quickly became a fan favourite at Fenerbahçe and was part of the squad for the club's celebrated victory over Bordeaux. After retiring as a player he moved into coaching, and he has kept a close relationship with the Galatasaray community in the years since.

Since the mid-2010s Tüfekçi has been battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fight that has periodically required intensive care and drawn sustained attention from Turkish football institutions such as the Turkish Football Federation and Galatasaray's management.