Ferdi Kadıoğlu
Left-Back · Fenerbahçe · Turkey
About Ferdi Kadıoğlu
Ferdi Kadıoğlu is the Dutch-born left-back who chose to play for Turkey, won the Turkish Cup with Fenerbahçe in 2023 and joined Brighton & Hove Albion in 2024. After a toe injury wrecked his first season in England, he bounced back to be voted Brighton's Player of the Season for 2025-26.
Ferdi Kadıoğlu's story
Lent, Judo and a DVD Player
Born in Arnhem on 7 October 1999 to a Turkish father, Feyzullah, and a Dutch-Canadian mother, Kadıoğlu grew up in Lent, just outside Nijmegen. He was good at judo and tennis, but football won. His father trained with him for hours, taking a portable DVD player to the local pitch so they could copy moves from Messi, Ronaldo and Beckham.
NEC to Istanbul
He joined NEC's academy in 2008 and made his first-team debut in August 2016, scoring 12 goals in 70 games before Fenerbahçe signed him in 2018. Used mostly in midfield or on the wing, he only became a regular starter after switching to left-back in 2021-22.
Choosing Turkey
After 52 appearances for Dutch youth sides, he chose Turkey in January 2022 and made his debut against the Faroe Islands that June. At Euro 2024 he helped Turkey reach the quarter-finals, where they lost 2-1 to a Netherlands side containing several of his former youth team-mates.
Cup Winner, Then a Setback
He won the Turkish Cup with Fenerbahçe in 2023 and left after six seasons and 204 games. Brighton paid a reported £25m plus add-ons in August 2024, but a tear in his big toe, which eventually needed surgery, restricted him to eight games in his first season.
Fans' Player of the Season
Fit again in 2025-26, he played 42 times under Fabian Hürzeler, moving between full-back and midfield, and Brighton fans voted him their Player of the Season in May 2026. Weeks later he was named in Turkey's squad for the 2026 World Cup, the country's first since 2002.
Did you know?
- 🍁 Through his mother he was also eligible to play for Canada, so three national teams were open to him before he chose Turkey.
- 🤝 His childhood friend from Lent, Ole Romeny, came through NEC's youth system alongside him.
- 👨👩👧 He proposed to his long-term partner Sera Vrij, a Dutch beauty-clinic owner, in March 2025, and their daughter was born that October. Sera's father is Dutch mixed martial arts fighter Dick Vrij.
- 🧠 He says the biggest lesson he took from José Mourinho at Fenerbahçe was match management: knowing when to be smart while protecting a 1-0 lead.
- 💊 He scored his first Premier League goal at Anfield on 2 November 2024 while playing through pain on painkillers.
- 🎂 Turkey's squad marked his 26th birthday at their Riva training camp on 7 October 2025, with TFF president İbrahim Ethem Hacıosmanoğlu and team-mate Mert Müldür serving him the first slice of cake.
- 🐺 His first Brighton goal came in a 3-2 EFL Cup win over Wolves on 18 September 2024.
- 🔄 Asked where he prefers to play, he said: "I prefer to be a full back. But if the gaffer needs me in front, I will help the team in front."
- 🇹🇷 Both of his Turkey goals came in wins: a 3-2 friendly victory over Germany in Berlin in November 2023 and the only goal against Romania in a World Cup play-off in March 2026.
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