İsmail Kartal

İsmail Kartal — Biography

İsmail Kartal is a right-back and manager whose name is bound up with Fenerbahçe. As a player he wore the yellow-and-navy shirt from 1983 to 1993 and won two league titles; as a coach he has taken charge of the club in four separate spells. On 18 June 2026 he was appointed to the job again. During his playing days he was also known by the nickname "Arap İsmail".

He began at Sarıyer, with whom he won the First League title in 1981-82. After two years at Gaziantepspor he moved to Fenerbahçe in 1983 and scored 15 goals in 235 matches. The Süper Lig titles of 1984-85 and 1988-89 belong to those years. His most productive season came in 1993-94 at Denizlispor, with 12 goals in 32 matches, and he retired after playing for Adanaspor in 1994-95. He was capped six times by the senior national team and twice by the under-21s.

He began as a coach in the Fenerbahçe academy and as an assistant, and Kardemir Karabükspor was his first side. He led Sivasspor to the First League title in 2004-05, taking the club up to the Süper Lig for the first time, and then worked at Mardinspor, Malatyaspor, Orduspor, Konya Anadolu Selçukspor and Altay. He was Fenerbahçe's assistant coach in 2010-2014, became head coach in 2014-15 and won the Super Cup. He took MKE Ankaragücü up to the Süper Lig as First League runners-up in 2017-18. He returned to Fenerbahçe in 2022 and in 2023-24, when the side finished second with 99 points. He coached Persepolis in 2025.