Genclerbirligi U19

Ankara does not lack for football, and most of what the capital argues about runs through one fixture: Gençlerbirliği against MKE Ankaragücü, the Başkent Derbisi. It is into that inheritance that the club's under-19 side plays, training and competing at the İlhan Cavcav Tesisleri rather than the 20,560-seat Eryaman Stadyumu the senior team calls home.

What the academy has actually produced is the argument for paying attention to it. Arda Güler entered the youth system in 2012 and left, years later, for Fenerbahçe and then Real Madrid. Yıldırım Mert Çetin went the other route through the reserve side, Hacettepe, into the first team, before AS Roma paid around €3 million for him in 2019. More recently Baran Yıldız has drawn interest from Newcastle United, and Arda Akgül was promoted to the senior squad in 2024 — evidence that the pipeline from Cavcav Tesisleri to the professional game has not slowed.

The senior club carries the weight here: two Turkish championships, in 1941 and 1946, and two Turkish Cups, in 1987 and 2001. The U19 side has its own line to add now. In the 2024–25 season it won the U19 Regional Development League, sealing the title in April 2025 with a 3–0 win over Anadolu University's under-19s and confirming it days later against GMG Kastamonuspor. That result carries them into the U19 PAF Ligi for 2025–26.