Sait Altınordu

Sait Altınordu — Biography

Sait Altınordu (24 July 1912, Üsküdar – 17 November 1978, İzmir) was a Turkish international footballer and later a coach. He began playing in Istanbul before joining İzmir's Altınordu S.K. at age sixteen, where he stayed for the next 27 years without ever transferring elsewhere — a loyalty FIFA records recognize as one of the longest single-club careers in the sport. Following Turkey's 1934 Surname Law, he adopted the club's name as his own surname.

Deployed mainly as a defender, he was nonetheless a capable scorer, netting 29 goals over his career, 13 of them in the 1937 Millî Küme season alone, which made him that year's top scorer. He won six İzmir Football League titles with Altınordu and, alongside Vahap Özaltay of Altay and Fuat Göztepe of Göztepe, is remembered as one of the symbolic footballers of the İzmir region. He earned four caps for the Turkish national team between 1932 and 1937 and was part of the squad at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

After retiring as a player, Altınordu worked as a football coach. He died on 17 November 1978 in İzmir and is buried at Kokluca Cemetery in the city's Altındağ district.