Rıdvan Yılmaz

Rıdvan Yılmaz — Biography

Rıdvan Yılmaz is a left-back who came through the Beşiktaş academy, won silverware with Rangers and returned to Beşiktaş in 2025. At 20 years and 21 days he became the youngest player in a Turkey squad at a European Championship (Euro 2020), and in August 2026 he played his 100th match in a Beşiktaş shirt.

Joining the Beşiktaş academy at seven, he spent ten years there. He made his first-team debut as a late substitute on 8 April 2019 in a 7-2 win over Çaykur Rizespor, and his first league start came away at Göztepe on 27 January 2020. He scored his first goal on 1 May 2021 in a 7-0 win over Hatayspor. In 2020-21 he won the Süper Lig and Turkish Cup with the club, and the Super Cup in 2021. In July 2022 he moved to Scotland, signing a five-year deal with Rangers; he debuted as a substitute against Union Saint-Gilloise in a Champions League qualifier on 2 August 2022 and won the Scottish League Cup in 2023-24. On 22-23 August 2025 he returned to Beşiktaş on a three-plus-one-year contract.

He made about 50 appearances for Turkey's youth teams from U16 to U21. He was called up to the senior side in the 30-man preliminary squad Şenol Güneş named before Euro 2020, made his debut in a friendly against Azerbaijan on 27 May 2021 and was included in the final 26-man tournament squad.