# Kocaelispor

Kocaelispor is a Turkish professional football club based in İzmit, Kocaeli. They were founded in 1966 and played in the top level between 1980 and 1988, 1992–2003 and the 2008–09 seasons. Their best finish was in 1992–93 season, where they finished fourth. They have won the Turkish Cup twice, in 1997 and 2002. On 8 January 2015, in front of 20,152 spectators, Kocaelispor set a record for the highest attendance at a Turkish Regional Amateur League encounter.

## History
### Foundation

Prior to establishment of Kocaelispor, the executive board representatives of Baçspor, a local football club, had demanded a new plat from İzmit Municipality to assure a place for training the sports in 1957. Osman Gencal, city mayor at the time, had been interested in finding a place for training due to his sportive background as a former sportsman and a member of Baçspor. Therefore, the municipality had given a 28-acre (110,000 m$^2$) wide plat to Baçspor, as the plat had been sold for a symbolic cost of 1 Lira.
Baçspor had sold the plat for 283,000 Liras and had a new place in Baç district of İzmit; and begun to a new construction. In 1964, Baçspor club board planned to found a new team at professional level and compete in 2nd Division. However, federation regulation of that time was stating that it was required to compound at least 3 teams and have appropriate facilities. Then, in 1966, three teams which are Baçspor, İzmit Gençlik and Doğanspor had come together, combined and founded Kocaelispor. Three club boards had consensus on every subject and embraced the green and black as the club colours. Then, it had been held a club congress in common and the new club board had been elected. Kocaelispor had spent 175,000 Liras to gather their first squad ever to compete in 2nd Division in 1966.
Kocaelispor was promoted to the 1st Division for the first time in 1980. They competed 8 seasons consecutively until their relegation in 1988. However, during this phase, the club has relegated once in 1986–87 season and come back after a Turkish Council of State verdict.

### 1992–93 season: Legendary roster

After the relegation in 1988, they escaped from relegation to third level in 1990 and Bartınspor relegated. They were back in top-level football campaign of Turkey, 1st Division, in 1992. Following this comeback, Kocaelispor had obtained their best league position performance. The team had a sensational start for the season. Beating Kayserispor with a 7–2 final score in 1st match day, collecting 25 points in first 10 weeks, Kocaelispor ended the first half of the fixture as the league leader. However, team had consecutive defeats and finished the season as the 4th of the ladder of 1992–93 season. The team represented Turkey at UEFA Cup next season.
The manager of team was Güvenç Kurtar and the roster was including respectable players. Fahrudin Omerović was the substitute keeper of Yugoslavia squad. Stevica Kuzmanovski and Mirko Mirković (latterly gained Turkish citizenship with name Mert Meriç) are other Yugoslav players in defence position. Bülent Uygun had played at forward position alongside national striker Saffet Sancaklı. Both players then joined Istanbul clubs. Uygun achieved league top scorer honour while playing for Fenerbahçe and Sancaklı first joined Galatasaray but returned the club in 1995 and at the end of season, he joined Fenerbahçe. Bülent Baturman, Halil İbrahim Kara, Melih Erdem, Ergun Kula are some of other notable players at that squad.

### Recent history

Kocaelispor had achieved another successful league position in 1995–96 season as the 5th best team on the table and competed at Intertoto Cup on following season.
Kocaelispor had the Turkish Cup title twice, in 1997 and 2002 against Trabzonspor and Beşiktaş, respectively. On following season of 2002–03, the team has been relegated again as finishing last. After total of 5 seasons competition at TFF First League, Kocaelispor had the championship in 2007–08 season and returned Süper Lig. However, this return lasted one season due to money shortage and relegated again to First League after lost 3–1 home match against Trabzonspor on 9 May 2009, at Round 31 as finishing 17th. Kocaelispor relegated to TFF Second League, third tier of Turkish football once after 2–1 losing away match against Kartalspor on 4 April 2010.
Kocaelispor were managed by 3 managers during 2007–2008 season: Fuat Yaman (from 1st–10th weeks), Kayhan Çubuklu (11th–31st) and Engin İpekoğlu (32nd–34th). They returned to Turkcell Super League as the title holders of last TFF First League season. However, this promotion was followed by successive two relegations and they played TFF Second League once in 2010–11 season. Kocaelispor relegated to fourth level in 2011–12 after finishing last in White Group of Second League. Finally they were relegated to Regional Amateur League after losing 1–0 away match against İstanbulspor 4 rounds before finishing the league on 6 April 2014.
Kocaelispor rivalled with Tekirdağspor, Çengelköyspor and Arnavutköy Belediyespor for promoting to Third League in 2014–15 season. They were leader for some weeks but finished as 4th in 11th group and Tekirdağspor returned professional level after 11 years. Kocaelispor finished 12th Group as champions and faced with Sultangazispor, champions of 11th Group at promotion play-offs. They defeated them as 2–0 with Sinan Pektemek and Hamza Mutlu's goals on 24 April 2016 in Eskişehir and returned professional level after 2 years.

## Supporters and rivalries

Kocaelispor boasts a large support base throughout Turkey, particularly in Marmara Region and Black Sea Region. The club's main fan base known as Hodri Meydan. The main rival is Sakaryaspor.

## Stadium

In 2017, İzmit Stadium became the new home ground for Kocaelispor replacing İzmit İsmetpaşa Stadium.

## Former sponsors

* Bank Asya (2009–2010)
* Hyundai (2008–2009)

## League participations

* Süper Lig: 1980–88, 1992–2003, 2008–09
* TFF First League: 1966–1980, 1988–92, 2003–08, 2009–10, 2021–22, 2023-
* TFF Second League: 2010–12, 2020–21, 2022–23
* TFF Third League: 2012–14, 2016–20
* Turkish Regional Amateur League: 2014–16

## Honours

* Turkish Cup
** Winners (2): 1996–97, 2001–02
* TFF First League
** Winners (3): 1979–80, 1991–92, 2007–08
* TFF Second League
** Winners (1): 2022–23
** Promotion (1): 2020–21
* TFF Third League
** Winners (1): 2019–20
* Turkish Regional Amateur League
** Winners (1): 2015–16

## Kocaelispor in Europe

    As of 3 October 2002
| Competition | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
| UEFA Cup Winners' Cup | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 |
| UEFA Cup | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7 | –7 |
| UEFA Intertoto Cup | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 14 | –3 |
| Total | 18 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 15 | 23 | –8 |
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup:
| Season | Round | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate |
| 1997–98 | 1R | Naţional București | 2–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 |
| 1997–98 | 2R | Lokomotiv Moscow | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 |
UEFA Cup:
| Season | Round | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate |
| 1993–94 | 1R | Sporting CP | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–2 |
| 2002–03 | 1R | Ferencváros | 0–1 | 0–4 | 0–5 |
UEFA Intertoto Cup:
| Season | Round | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate |
| 1996 | GS | Uralmash | — | 0–2 | 4th |
| 1996 | GS | CSKA Sofia | 1–3 | — | 4th |
| 1996 | GS | Strasbourg | — | 1–1 | 4th |
| 1996 | GS | Hibernians | 5–3 | — | 4th |
| 1999 | 2R | Ventspils | 2–0 | 1–1 | 3–1 |
| 1999 | 3R | MSV Duisburg | 0–3 | 0–0 | 0–3 |
| 2000 | 1R | FK Atlantas | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–1, 4–5 (p) |
UEFA Ranking history:
    As of 2002
| Season | Rank | Points |
| 1994 | 168 | 0.500 |
| 1995 | 177 | 0.500 |
| 1996 | 193 | 0.500 |
| 1997 | 188 | 0.500 |
| 1998 | 104 | 1.750 |
| 1999 | 142 | 15.175 |
| 2000 | 127 | 16.925 |
| 2001 | 117 | 19.987 |
| 2002 | 126 | 19.362 |

## Players
### Current squad

    As of 13 February, 2025
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | TUR | Harun Tekin |
| 3 | DF | TUR | Muharrem Cinan |
| 4 | MF | CRO | Josip Vuković |
| 5 | DF | GAB | Aaron Appindangoyé |
| 6 | MF | POR | Pedrinho |
| 8 | MF | TUR | Cihat Çelik |
| 9 | FW | TUR | Ahmet Sağat |
| 10 | FW | BRA | Marcão (on loan from Al-Ahli) |
| 11 | MF | CRO | Mijo Caktaš |
| 15 | MF | TUR | Tarkan Serbest |
| 17 | FW | TUR | Oğulcan Çağlayan |
| 18 | FW | TUR | Furkan Gedik |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 19 | DF | TUR | Emre Gedik |
| 20 | FW | CPV | Ryan Mendes |
| 22 | DF | TUR | Ahmet Oğuz |
| 23 | MF | TUR | Samet Yalçın |
| 32 | DF | TUR | Mehmet Yılmaz |
| 34 | GK | TUR | Batuhan Şen (on loan from Galatasaray) |
| 35 | GK | TUR | Gökhan Değirmenci (captain) |
| 41 | DF | TUR | Onur Öztonga |
| 45 | MF | TUR | Mesut Can Tunalı |
| 70 | FW | TUR | Barış Alıcı |
| 72 | FW | HON | Rigoberto Rivas |
| 88 | DF | TUR | Caner Osmanpaşa |
| 91 | GK | TUR | Ahmet Göcen |

### Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | MF | TUR | Ümitcan Ekşi (at Belediye Derincespor until 30 June 2025) |
| — | MF | TUR | Furkan Özyapı (at Bursaspor until 30 June 2025) |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | FW | TUR | Bedirhan Yıldız (at Belediye Derincespor until 30 June 2025) |

## Former players

| Orhan Ak Nuri Çolak Saffet Sancaklı Faruk Yiğit Kemal Halat Ayman Abdelaziz | Aleksandar Aleksandrov Kwame Ayew Roman Dąbrowski Ahmed Hassan Stevica Kuzmanovski Miško Mirković | John Moshoeu Detlef Müller a.k.a. Metin Mert Fahrudin Omerović Dumitru Stângaciu Milan Timko Zdravko Lazarov |

## Former managers

| Mustafa Reşit Akçay Kayhan Çubuklu Mustafa Denizli Galip Gündoğdu Engin İpekoğlu Rasim Kara | Hikmet Karaman Sabri Kiraz Güvenç Kurtar Ergun Ortakçı Holger Osieck Reinhard Saftig | Sadi Tekelioğlu Yılmaz Vural Fuat Yaman Ertuğrul Sağlam |