Dida

Goalkeeper - Retired
26 Sep 2027
Sunday
Process

Marked for Dida

40 Edition

The Ankaragucu Post

3 May 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Ankaragucu part company with Alper Aktorkoglu

The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.

Player ratings

Both of them Maxwell's — 8.55

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.55, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Halil İbrahim Pehlivan hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ankaragucu can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

7 saves: Dida was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Boardroom

Alper Ozan minds the shop at Ankaragucu

“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Alper Ozan recited it perfectly.

The dugout

Yusuf Emre Gültekin says Ankaragucu went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Match

The wait goes on for Ankaragucu

4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad

Élan Ricardo in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ankaragucu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

6 goals as Ankaragucu and Antalyaspor go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ankaragucu and Antalyaspor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

In brief

Back issues
39 Edition

The Ankaragucu Post

26 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Ankaragucu

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Squad

Dida stands alone

9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Squad

Bertuğ Yıldırım is carrying Ankaragucu

20 goals and a season average of 7.48. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

Tempers go at Ankaragucu

Élan Ricardo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Words at Ankaragucu training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmet Arslan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Ankaragucu rescue it on 94 minutes

Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Besiktas had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.

The dugout

Ankaragucu keep their word to Bertuğ Yıldırım

Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.

Match

Ankaragucu and Besiktas take a point apiece

It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

The dugout

Élan Ricardo gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Élan Ricardo is on it.

In brief

37 Edition

The Ankaragucu Post

12 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Dida keeps Ankaragucu in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Match

Ankaragucu taken apart

1‑5 to Galatasaray, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Market

Antony Otero asks to leave Ankaragucu

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Bertuğ Yıldırım

18 goals and a season average of 7.43 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Mahmut Tekdemir in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ankaragucu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Bertuğ Yıldırım among the goals in a wild afternoon

6 goals in one match, Bertuğ Yıldırım on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Ankaragucu and Galatasaray.

Squad

Ahmet Arslan falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Ankaragucu dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

The dugout

Alper Aktorkoglu faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alper Aktorkoglu after 1‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

In brief

32 Edition

The Ankaragucu Post

8 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Irfan Sinik

23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ankaragucu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

A brace, and Bertuğ Yıldırım takes the afternoon — 9.60

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bertuğ Yıldırım provided it, and the 9.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Maxwell signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maxwell and Ankaragucu agree another 2 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Ankaragucu

Élan Ricardo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Ankaragucu get the job done against Hatayspor

A 4‑3 win over Hatayspor, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Ankaragucu and Hatayspor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Squad

Dida wants to go home

“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Ankaragucu know it.

Match

No clean sheets in sight for Ankaragucu

4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.

Player ratings

One of those days for Maxwell

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.76, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

31 Edition

The Ankaragucu Post

1 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Ankaragucu taken apart

1‑5 to Basaksehir, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Market

Sandro Manoel puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ankaragucu, and it is not being withdrawn.

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Ankaragucu

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Ertaç Özbir

There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Ankaragucu

Élan Ricardo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Ankaragucu and Basaksehir in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Squad

Home is on Sandro Manoel's mind

“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Ankaragucu are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Squad

Sandro Manoel wants one last season at home

Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Ankaragucu know now that the thought has arrived.

Player ratings

One of those days for Élan Ricardo

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

17 Edition

The Ankaragucu Post

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Ertaç Özbir keeps Ankaragucu in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Élan Ricardo in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ankaragucu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Ankaragucu leaking at the back

5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.

Match

A bad afternoon for Ankaragucu against Istanbulspor

1‑2 to Istanbulspor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Words at Ankaragucu training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandro Manoel is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Dida

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Alper Aktorkoglu to a room that had heard them before.

The dugout

A promise honoured at Ankaragucu

Something was said to Diogo Coelho and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

The dugout

Élan Ricardo gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Élan Ricardo is on it.

In brief

9 Edition

The Ankaragucu Post

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Mahmut Tekdemir breaks a bone — 58 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

A falling-out at Ankaragucu

Sandro Manoel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Ahmet Arslan sends Ankaragucu past Giresunspor

It finished 1‑0, and it was Ahmet Arslan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ankaragucu.

The dugout

Dida gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

Words at Ankaragucu training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Gómez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Player ratings

Ahmet Arslan stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.67 on the card, and the Ankaragucu support went home talking about one name.

The dugout

The manager has not finished forgetting Sandro Manoel's mistake

Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.

Player ratings

Ramazan Civelek was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

The dugout

Alper Aktorkoglu: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.

In brief