Zekeriya Alp

Zekeriya Alp — Biography

Zekeriya Alp is a football man who began as one of Beşiktaş's steady defenders in the 1970s and later carried on as a columnist, administrator and head of the Central Referee Commission. His place in Beşiktaş's Squads of Century team shows how closely he is tied to the club.

He moved from Feriköy to Beşiktaş in 1968-69 and stayed for eleven seasons, until he retired in 1978. In that time he played 204 league matches and scored 6 goals, in years regarded as unlucky for the club. He was known for his bursts down the left wing and for a gentlemanly style of play, and he scored his first league goal against Vefa on 5 September 1971. He won the Turkish Cup in 1975, along with trophies such as the Prime Minister's Cup and the TSYD Cup, and he earned 22 caps for the Turkey national team.

After leaving the pitch he wrote columns for newspapers, worked as a television commentator and served several times on Beşiktaş's board. Under Levent Bıçakcı he was the Turkish Football Federation's press spokesman; under Yıldırım Demirören he sat on its board and led the Central Referee Commission from 2012 to 2014. After Nihat Özdemir's election he was appointed to the same post again in 2019 and resigned in 2020. As a businessman he is a member of the Rumelian Executives and Businessmen Association (RUYİAD).