Rober Eryol

Rober Eryol — Biography

Rober Eryol is remembered as a left winger and left back in the Galatasaray side of the 1950s, and for playing in all three of Turkey's matches at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, the country's first. Of Jewish origin, he played alongside names such as Metin Oktay, Suat Mamat, İsfendiyar Açıksöz, Kadri Aytaç and Turgay Şeren in that Galatasaray team, and the question of belonging was a theme in how he told his own story.

After his family moved to Taksim in 1937 he began playing for amateur teams in Istanbul. The minority clubs Pera and Taksim wanted him, but because he saw himself as Turkish he declined them and, at 16 in 1947, chose Galatasaray. With the club he won the Istanbul Sunday League in 1948-49 and the Istanbul Professional League in 1954-55, 1955-56 and 1957-58. He later worked as a coach.

He made his debut for the senior national team against Switzerland in Bern on 25 May 1953 and was capped nine times between 1953 and 1954. In 1955 he won the Military World Games in Italy with the national side, and he also had two appearances for the B team. He died in December 2000 in Istanbul's Maltepe district.