The Fenerbahce manager exists somewhere between legend and contradiction. Who is Ismail Kartal?

The family relationship is not the clearest. For the fans, he is ‘the club’s son’, whilst for many of his players he is simply ‘Papa Ismail’. A confusing family tree that illustrates rather well what Ismail Kartal represents for Fenerbahce. Because the manager who will lead the Turks tonight in their tricky Champions League clash against Roma manages to be everything and its opposite. Often all at once. Modest and arrogant, avant-garde and a defensive tactician, a record-breaker and the eternal runner-up. A living contradiction who has long since learnt to walk the precarious tightrope that separates the man from the legend.

Kartal’s biography seems to have been taken straight from the pages of a coming-of-age novel. Ismail was born 65 years ago in Anadolu Kavağı, a village overlooking the Bosphorus, 40 kilometres north of Istanbul. His family was extremely poor. His father was a fisherman. Whenever he went out in his boat, he always took Ismail with him. That is why he did not want his son to play football. He needed his help on board. He could not tolerate absences or injuries. Yet the allure of the ball proved too strong. Ismail did indeed become a footballer, playing in midfield for Gaziantepspor. During a friendly match, the right-back broke his arm and the manager asked Kartal to replace him. The youngster obliged, though he had no idea how to make a diagonal run. The second match is even tougher. The kit man prepares a pair of boots with longer studs for him. They would have come in handy for making ‘tough’ tackles. The problem is that when he takes to the pitch, his feet go numb. The fans can’t wait for him to be substituted. At half-time, he changes his boots. And he provides an assist in the 2–0 victory. After two years, he moved to Fenerbahce. He stayed there for 10 seasons, winning two league titles. There were no contract renewal negotiations: Ismail simply sat down at the desk and asked the directors to put down the figure they thought was commensurate with his performances. After a season at Adanaspor, he decided to retire. 

He returned straight away to Fenerbahce and began coaching the youth teams. The turning point came in 1998. The Yellow-and-Blues appointed Joachim Löw as manager, fresh from two fourth-place finishes with Stuttgart. Kartal was asked to act as his assistant. A deep friendship developed between the two. “For me, he’s the best manager in the world,” says the Turk. Things weren’t going particularly well, however. Fenerbahçe finished third. The German left at the end of the year, while Ismail wandered the fringes of Turkish football to gain experience.

At the start of the 2014/2015 season, he was recalled by Fenerbahce. It marked the beginning of a series of adventures that always ended in exactly the same way. In April 2015, Fenerbahce were top of the table, one point ahead of Galatasaray. Following a 5–1 away win against Caykur Rizespor, the team’s coach was fired upon. The driver was injured. “I looked death in the face,” says Ismail. The players were devastated. They finished the season in second place. And for Kartal, it was all down to that attack. In 2022, the manager was called upon to take over mid-season. And he finished second. In 2023, he was recalled whilst on pilgrimage to Mecca. He took the reins once more. He finished second once more.

Ismail says he admires Guardiola and Klopp, but that he has created a style all of his own: an “adaptive” brand of football, free from dogma, capable of adapting to the opposition, the stadium in which the match is played, and the weather conditions. To those who criticise him for not having won anything, he replies: “Two league titles were stolen from my Fenerbahçe.”

His friendship with Löw has remained close. Some time ago, after watching one of Joachim’s Germany matches, Ismail rang his friend to tell him that he’d noticed the build-up play involving a centre-back, whilst the other marked the opposition striker. The German is said to have complimented him on spotting that detail and promised to take him with him to Real Madrid or Barcelona. Things turned out differently. And tonight, after two wins and two defeats in the league, Kartal is playing for his place on the bench. An unusual scenario for a perennial runner-up.