Adnan Süvari

Adnan Süvari — Biography

Adnan Süvari (1926, Aydın – 6 June 1991, Antalya) was a Turkish footballer and manager. He began playing in İzmir and spent ten years at Göztepe; after playing basketball at the İzmir College of Economics and Commerce, he studied textile engineering. He attended a coaching course in London and, back in Turkey, spent a season and a half in charge of Karşıyaka before leaving that post in October 1960; he then assisted head coach András Kuttik at Göztepe, taking over as head coach in 1960-61 once Kuttik returned to his former club Beşiktaş. He was also appointed Turkey national team coach in 1966, holding both jobs for three years before giving up the national post in 1970.

At Göztepe from 1962 he made 4-3-3 the team's settled formation, built around striker Fevzi Zemzem, and brought a collective, total-football style to the club. Under him Göztepe reached the semifinals of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1968-69 and the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1969-70, while winning the Turkish Cup and the Presidential Cup twice each. After his older brother Sebahattin Süvari died in 1970, he fell out with the club's management, resigned and gave up coaching for good. He later served long-term as a Turkish Football Federation member, worked in insurance and began writing a column for Milliyet; he died of a heart attack in Antalya on 6 June 1991 and is buried at Hacılarkırı Cemetery in İzmir's Pınarbaşı district.