Taner Arı

Taner Arı — Biography

Taner Arı was born on 29 May 1987 in Erzincan. As a child he moved with his family to Linz, Austria, and began playing football at nine with the FC Blau-Weiß Linz academy; after a season on loan at Ebelsberg Linz in 1998 he returned to Blau-Weiß Linz. A 2004 trial with Fenerbahçe's youth setup did not lead to a contract, and in the 2004-05 season he moved up to Blau-Weiß Linz's first team in Austria's third tier, followed by a season each with the Spanish lower-division sides UD Norte and UD Fuerteventura. In 2007 he joined SC Schwanenstadt in Austria; when the club was bought and renamed SC Wiener Neustadt and won promotion, he stayed on and made his Bundesliga debut in January 2010, only to move back to Turkey that same month, signing for Orduspor. He made just five league appearances there before switching to TKİ Tavşanlı Linyitspor in the 2010-11 winter transfer window.

Later in his career Arı played for Batman Petrolspor, Denizlispor, DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda in Slovakia, SKN St. Pölten in Austria and Fenerbahçe. A defender holding both Turkish and Austrian citizenship, he went on to work as a coach after his playing career.