Salih Dursun

Salih Dursun — Biography

Salih Dursun was born on 12 July 1991 in the Adapazarı district of Sakarya, the third child in a farming family; he began playing football at age ten with a neighborhood amateur side before moving up to Sakaryaspor's youth setup, where he spent seven years developing. He signed his first professional contract at eighteen, and in the 2011–12 season — despite usually playing in front of the back line — he stood out by scoring nine goals in thirty league matches, a run that led to a four-year move to Kayserispor in 2012, where he quickly became a fixture in the starting eleven. He went on to wear the colors of Galatasaray and Trabzonspor as well, playing at right-back and in a defensive-midfield role, and he was capped for Turkey's B national team. In 2016, playing for Trabzonspor, he made headlines nationwide after showing a red card to the referee during a match, and in 2020 a street in Trabzon was named in his honor. He moved to Fatih Karagümrük in February 2025 and returned to Sakaryaspor that August. He married Deniz Dursun in Sapanca in June 2012; though his father supported Fenerbahçe and his sister Beşiktaş, he grew up a Galatasaray fan.