Mete Adanır

Mete Adanır — Biography

Mete Adanır was a Turkish Cypriot forward born in Limassol who played in Cyprus, England and Turkey. He was top scorer of the Turkish second division with Konyaspor. He died in Havza on 20 January 1989 as a Samsunspor player. Remembered as a "football ambassador", his name lives on in both Cyprus and Samsun.

Starting out in school football, he won the Turkish high-school championship with the Lefkoşa Turkish High School team in 1978, scoring in the final. He turned professional at Doğan Türk Birliği and contributed to the club's first Federation Cup in 1978-79. In England, where he went to study in 1979, he played for Leyton Orient's youth team, but his registration was cancelled when the Cyprus federation did not give clearance. At the 1980 Islamic Games he scored for Northern Cyprus and caught Altay's attention; he came to İzmir in 1981-82 and was with the club when it returned to the top flight in 1983-84. At Konyaspor in 1985-86 he scored 25 goals to finish as the second division's top scorer. In July 1987 he moved to Samsunspor, helped them to fourth place in his first season and scored an 82nd-minute winner against champions Galatasaray.

His family set up the Mete Adanır Foundation in 1989 to support Cypriot athletes, and since 1991 the Turkish Cypriot Sports Writers Association has named its Sportsperson of the Year award after him. A sports hall in İlkadım was named for him on the 33rd anniversary of his death; in 2026 he was remembered in Lefkoşa, and in July Samsunspor and the Northern Cyprus under-12 national team played a friendly in his memory.