Tanju Kayhan

Tanju Kayhan — Biography

Tanju Kayhan is a retired Austrian footballer of Turkish descent, known for coming through the Rapid Wien academy to Beşiktaş and for the many Turkish clubs he played for afterwards. He was a full-back who could work on either flank; although right-footed, he said he preferred playing on the left. He has since left the pitch and works in coaching and personal football training.

The first phase of his career was in Vienna. He began at Rapid Wien in the late 1990s and made his first-team debut against LASK Linz in 2008. On loan at Wiener Neustadt in 2010 he played 30 league games in 2010-11 and 10 matches in the UEFA Europa League. He earned three caps for the Austria under-21 team, the first against Italy. In 2011 he moved to Beşiktaş together with Veli Kavlak. The second phase was spent in Turkey, largely on loan: he played for Mersin İdmanyurdu, Eskişehirspor and Elazığspor, and became first-choice left-back at Kardemir Karabükspor. In 2016 he signed a two-year contract with Göztepe and in 2018 he joined Adana Demirspor, but an anterior cruciate ligament injury meant he never played an official match there; in 2020 he left Eskişehirspor.

The last phase brought him back to Austria, where he played in the lower leagues for Hundsheim alongside his brother Coşkun and worked as an assistant coach with Admira Wacker's under-16 side. He holds both Austrian and Turkish citizenship and is 1.72 m tall.