Kafkas, Tolunay

Tolunay Kafkas was born on March 21, 1968 in Ankara , the capital of Turkey. He began his football career at the local club Turk Telekomspor . In 1989, he became a member of the Kecchiorenguju Second League club, a year later Kafkas moved to another team of the Diyarbakırspor league. In 1991, he joined Erzurumspor , also playing in Turkey’s second most important league.

Finally, in the 1992/93 season, Kafkas joined Konyaspor , the First League team, which made his debut in the league in the first round in a away defeat (1: 2) from Aydinspor ^[2] . And Kafkas scored the first goal for Konyaspor on January 23, 1993 in a victorious home match (5: 2) against the same Aydinspor ^[3] . According to the results of the championship, Konyaspor took the last place and left the elite league, and Kafkas moved to Trabzonspor , where he spent the next 6 seasons. As part of Trabzonspor, he won the Turkish Cup in 1995, and the most successful season was 1995/96 , in which Kafkas played 33 matches in the league and scored 8 goals ^[2] .

In the summer of 1998, Kafkas became a player of Galatasaray , but rarely appeared on the field. In 1999, Kafkas moved to Bursaspor , the middle peasant of the Turkish Championship, in which he was a base player. In the 2000/01 and 2001/02 seasons , Kafkas played for Denizlispor . After which he moved to Austria, where from 2002 to 2005 he played for Superfund , LASK and Admira Wacker .

For the Turkish national team, Tolunay Kafkas spent 33 matches and scored 3 goals. His debut took place on December 21, 1994 in a friendly match against Italy . Then he scored his first goal for the national team, in the 60th minute narrowing the gap in the account. The match ended with the victory of the Italians with a score of 3: 1 ^[4] . The next time Kafkas scored a goal in a friendly match against the national team of Honduras , held in Toronto, Canada on June 11, 1995 ^[5] . His ball in the 89th minute was the only one in the game.

Tolunai Kafkas joined the 1996 European Championship , where he spent almost the entire match against the Croatian national team (replaced in the 88th minute) and replaced in the game with Portugal (in the 63rd minute).

After completing his career as a professional football player, Tolunay Kafkas began his coaching career, leading Kayserispor in 2007. In the first season, the team under his leadership took 5th place in the championship and won the Turkish Cup , which at that time was the only significant trophy in the history of Kayserispor in the domestic arena. For the next 2 years, Kafkas remained at his former post at Kayserispor, which held 7th and 8th places in the 2008/09 and 2009/10 championships. In the summer of 2010, Kafkas headed “ Gaziantepspor ”, which he was able to lead to 4th place in the Super League 2010/11 and the Turkish Cup semi- final ^[6] .

Then Kafkas worked as the head of the football development department in the Turkish Football Federation, and since October 2011 he coached the Turkish youth team. At the end of January 2013, he replaced Shenol Gunesh ^[7] as head coach of the Trabzonspor club ^[8] . By that time, one of the grandees of Turkish football was sliding in the standings to the relegation zone. The change of coach went to the team's benefit, and she took 9th place in the championship ^[9] . However, this coach’s success against the general backdrop of the failed season for Trabzonspor did not guarantee Kafkas to maintain his position. In June 2013, when the club management planned a total restructuring of the team, there was no place for Kafkas in the new Trabzonspor ^[10] .

Kafkas, before the start of the 2013/14 season, headed “ Karabyukspor ” ^[11] . The team under his leadership showed a confident game and fought for a place in the Europa League ^[12] . “Karabukspor” took the final 7th place, but due to UEFA disqualification, a number of Turkish clubs received the coveted ticket to the European competition. In the Europa League, his team was able to pass the Norwegian “ Rosenborg ” and won the first home match against the French “ Saint-Etienne ” with a score of 1-0 ^[13] . In the return match, the Turks lost with the same score and lost to the French in the penalty shootout. And at the end of January 2015, Kafkas resigned from the post of head coach of “Karabykspor”, the team at that time was 1 point from the relegation zone ^[14] .

As a player

  Trabzonspor

• Turkish Cup Winner ( 1 ): 1994/95

  Galatasaray

• Champion of Turkey ( 2 ): 1997/98 , 1998/99
• Turkish Cup Winner ( 1 ): 1998/99

As head coach

  Kayserispor

• Turkish Cup Winner ( 1 ): 2007/08

• Profile of Tolunaya Kafkas on the website of the Turkish Football Federation as a coach , as a player
• Tolunaya Kafkas's profile on mackolik.com as a coach , as a player