Ersin Destanoğlu

Ersin Destanoğlu — Biography

Ersin Destanoğlu is a goalkeeper born on 1 January 2001 in the Gaziosmanpaşa district of Istanbul. He started out in football at the age of eleven at Bayrampaşa's academy, moved up to Beşiktaş's youth side a year later, spent 2013-2017 there, and put pen to paper on his first professional contract with the club on 8 September 2017.

He rose to become Beşiktaş's number-one goalkeeper in the summer of 2020 once Loris Karius had left, making his first-team debut on 13 June 2020 in a 2-1 defeat to Antalyaspor in the Süper Lig. In November 2020 a coming-together with an opposing forward saw him sent off, making him the first Beşiktaş goalkeeper shown a red card since Rüştü Reçber in 2007; the following April he denied Swedish forward Isaac Thelin from the penalty spot, becoming the first goalkeeper to save a league penalty since the 2015-16 season. With the club he won the league title in 2020-21, the Turkish Cup twice (2020-21, 2023-24) and the Turkish Super Cup twice (2021, 2024), and earned 23 caps combined across Turkey's U16, U17, U18, U19 and U21 sides, besides later being called into senior national-team squads.

In July 2026, after thirteen years at Beşiktaş, he closed that chapter and signed a three-year deal with UAE Pro League club Al-Jazira, continuing his career in the Gulf. He married Neşe Sevdik Kurtovic in August 2026.