Kemal Yıldırım

Kemal Yıldırım — Biography

Kemal Yıldırım was born on 15 May 1958 in Ordu and began his football career with his hometown club Orduspor. A graduate of the Open Education Faculty who is married with one child, he went on to play for Galatasaray, Zonguldakspor, Adana Demirspor, Ankaragücü, Sakaryaspor, Gençlerbirliği, Zeytinburnuspor, and Bakırköyspor, making 483 appearances and scoring 94 goals in what was then Turkey's top flight, the Süper Lig, making him one of the longest-serving players in the league's history. With Sakaryaspor he won the Turkish Cup in the 1987-88 season.

After retiring as a player, he moved into coaching, taking charge of Adanaspor for the rest of the 2000-01 season after Joachim Löw was dismissed from the post, and later also managed the amateur club Yıldırımspor. Beyond football, he also took an interest in politics, running as the Democratic Left Party's mayoral candidate for Adana's Yumurtalık district in the 31 March 2019 local elections.