Ahmed Şerafettin
Ahmed Şeraffettin Bey or Şeref Bey (1894–1933) was a Turkish football manager. He was also the first manager of the Turkish club Beşiktaş J.K. (1911–1925), as well as one of the team's icons. He played a very important role for the club, bringing them to three league championships (1920, 1921, 1924). Şeref Bey started the football division of Beşiktaş.
Biography
Ahmed Şeraffettin was born in 1894, İstanbul during the Ottoman Empire. At age 7, he graduated Bediai Irfan Mektep. At age 10 he graduated Beşiktaş Mülkiye Rüştiyesi. Then at age 20, he graduated from a French school. Şeref Bey was very active with sports and was excellent at Fencing. He was also part of the Beşiktaş Gymnastics Club. In 1910, he became the president of 2 newly formed football clubs: Valideçeşme and Basiret. In 1911 these 2 clubs merged to form the football division of Beşiktaş JK. The club chose him to be the teams manager. Beşiktaş didn't enter any official leagues, until 1919, when they competed in the İstanbul Sports League. In his first two seasons, he led them to two championships. After the Turkish Independence War and the Turkish Republic formed in 1923, he entered his team into the İstanbul Football League. In 1924 he led them to a championship. The team came in 3rd place the next year and Şeref Bey retired, but was still active with the club. He started a project to build the club a new stadium. The stadium opened in 1933, but Şeref Bey became very ill and died a few months later. In his honor, the club named the stadium Şeref Stadium. Beşiktaş played there, until 1947, when they moved to İsmet İnönü Stadium. Şeref Bey's stature was erected in March, 2008 in Beşiktaş.
