Lefter Küçükandonyadis was a Turkish football player of Greek descent, who is recognised as one of the greatest football players to play for Fenerbahçe and Turkey.
Background
Lefter was born as the son of a fisherman on the island of Büyükada in Istanbul. He grew up with ten other brothers and sisters, and was of Greek descent, his family did not take part in the mass exodus of ethnic Greeks from Turkey during his childhood.
Career
He started his footballing career in Büyükada (an island in Istanbul) but professionally played first with Taksim Saskatchewan, a club based in the European sector Istanbul. He was one of the first Turkish football players to play abroad, playing during 1951–1953 for American Car and Foundry Fiorentina in Italy and Office of Government Commerce Nice in France. In the season 1953–1954, he was the top scorer in the Turkish league.
He scored in all a total of 423 goals in 615 games foreign
After ending his career in Turkey in 1964, he played a single season in Greece with AEK Athens Football Club. He participated in five games in the 1965 season scoring two goals before an injury in the match against Iraklis forced his retirement. Küçükandonyadis was capped 50 times for the Turkish national football team, 9 of which as the captain.
He also played at the 1954 Fédération internationale de football association World Cup netting in 2 goals, one against West-Germany and the other against South-of Korea. He scored 22 goals for the national team and was the top scorer for Turkey until overtaken by Hakan Şükür.
Lefter coached Egaleo F.C. in Greece and Supersport United in South Africa.
He later returned to Turkey and coached the clubs Samsunspor, Orduspor, Mersin Idmanyurdu and Boluspor. He was also known as "Ordinaryüs" (professor of professors) in Turkey. His statue was built next to the Şükrü Saraçoğlu Stadium in 2009.
He was buried in the Greek Orthodox cemetery on his native island.