Şenol Güneş

Güneş began his amateur career at Erdoğdu Gençlik as a goalkeeper. Shortly after he was recruited for the Trabzonspor development team, and began playing for the senior team soon after. He played for Trabzonspor for twelve years between 1975 and 1987. During this period he won six league championships. In the 1978–79 season, he set the Süper Lig clean sheet record by not conceding a single goal for 1,110 minutes. He was part of the "Trabzonpor Efsanesi" (literally "The Legend of Trabzonspor", a name given by the Turkish press) along with other local players such as Turgay Semercioğlu, Necmi Perekli and Ali Kemal Denizci. Güneş has 31 caps for the Turkey national team, being the captain in five games.

His managerial career started at Trabzonspor, where he was assistant manager before being promoted. He came close to winning Süper Lig in the 1995–96 campaign after leading all season, but in the end his team came second. That year, Trabzonspor also played in the 1996–97 UEFA Cup where they were knocked out by Schalke 04. He left the club soon after, and worked at Antalyaspor and Sakaryaspor. In 2000, he was hired to manage the Turkey national team. Turkey qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup and finished third. Güneş won the UEFA Coach of the Year award for 2002. After the World Cup, he received many offers from Greece, Brazil and Spain, but he wanted to stay with Turkey. After the national team failed to qualify for UEFA Euro 2004, Güneş was sacked as manager. He returned to Trabzonspor in January 2005, signing a three-and-a-half-year contract but left after finishing narrowly in second place. At this time, there were rumours that Güneş would be taking a coaching job in Iran or in the United Arab Emirates. On 8 December 2006, FC Seoul, one of the leading football clubs in the K League, announced their three-year contract with Güneş starting from 2007. Three years later, Güneş returned to his hometown as head coach of Trabzonspor for the fourth time, replacing Hugo Broos. In the 2010-11 campaign, he again led the entire season with Trabzonspor, but finished second once again at the end of the season. Later, it was revealed the 2011 Turkish sports corruption scandal was the…

Club

International

Managerial statistics

As of match played 8 March 2025

Güneş was born in Trabzon, Turkey, and graduated from Karadeniz Technical University. He taught at a middle school in Trabzon between 1978 and 1983. He and his wife Semra have two daughters.