İrfan Can Kahveci (born 15 July 1995) is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or a winger for Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe and the Turkey national team.
He started playing football at Gençlerbirliği Football School at the age of 7.[3] After the years he spent at the football school, İrfan entered the Gençlerbirliği youth team by showing himself in the selections. He signed a professional contract with Gençlerbirliği during the Fuat Çapa period. On 27 April 2012, Kahveci played in the last 5 minutes of the match against Kayserispor for the first for the club in the Spor Toto Cup match.[4]
In the 2013-2014 season, he loaned to Hacettepe, the satellite team of Gençlerbirliği, to gain experience. Kahveci, who scored 4 goals in 34 matches here and contributed to Hacettepe's promotion to the TFF Second League at the end of the 2013-2014 season.[3]
On 29 August 2014, Irfan Can made his Süper Lig debut for the first team against Rizespor during the 2014–15 season. On 9 November 2014, he scored his first league goal in the 63rd minute against Kasımpaşa. He finished the season with 6 goals in 30 matches in league and cup competitions.
In his second season with Gençlerbirliği he amassed 3 goals in 33 matches in all competitions.
On 26 December 2016, Kahveci signed a contract with İstanbul Başakşehir until the end of 2021-22 season.[5] On 14 January 2016, he made debut with the team against Kayserispor as a substitute, Başakşehir won the match 5-0.
On 19 September 2017, he made his continental debut against Hoffenheim in a UEFA Europa League away match, they lost 3-1.
On 2 December 2020, he scored a hat-trick against RB Leipzig in the UEFA Champions League. His team, however, lost the match 3–4.[6] It made him only the third player to score a hat-trick in a losing cause in the Champions League, after Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.[7]
On 31 January 2021, Fenerbahçe announced via Twitter that Kahveci joined the team.[8] He signed a four-and-a-half-year contract with Fenerbahçe for a €7 million fee.[9][10] On 4 March 2021, he made his debut against Antalyaspor at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, Süper Lig match tied 1–1.[11] On 30 October 2021, he scored his first goal against Konyaspor, Fenerbahçe lost 2–1.[12] In 2023–24 season, he made a very strong start with new coach and team's local legend İsmail Kartal and became one of the key players who took more responsibility on the field.[13][14] He scored 12 goals in 31 Süper Lig matches and 6 goals in 14 UEFA Conference League matches. On 26 October 2023, he wore a Fenerbahçe jersey for the 100th time in all competitions against Ludogorets Razgrad in UEFA Europa Conference League Group H third week match, Fenerbahçe won 3–1 in Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium.[15] On 12 January 2025, Fenerbahçe announced that they had signed a three-year contract with Kahveci until June 2028.[16]
Kahveci was called up by manager Fatih Terim for Turkey's friendly match against Russia on 31 August 2016 and subsequent World Cup 2018 qualifier against Croatia.[17] He made a debut in the national team on 23 March 2018 in a 1–0 win against Ireland.[18] In his second match in June 2019, a friendly against Uzbekistan, he had a chance to score his first international goal, but he missed a 90th-minute penalty kick. Turkey still won the game 2–0 courtesy of a brace from Zeki Çelik.
In his early years at Gençlerbirliği, he played as a left-back[3][19] position and then, his loan period at Hacettepe and senior career with Gençlerbirliği, Kahveci was deployed in several positions, most notably as a deep-lying midfielder and a wide midfielder primarily on the right side as he was deemed too small to play in the middle of the park.[3] After transfers to İstanbul Başakşehir in the 2016–17 season, manager Abdullah Avcı inserted Kahveci into the playmaker role, where his vision, passing, technical skill and ability to read and understand the game suited him. Since that season, Kahveci was primarily deployed in the position or as a central attacking midfielder at both club and international level. The player personally said that playing central midfield was his preference.[20]
As a result of his versatility, Kahveci could also function on the wing and spent the majority of his career at Fenerbahçe, occupying the role in the team's 4–3–3 formation.[21] His close control with the ball, speed, dribbling, crossing and shots from outside the box, which resulted in former manager İsmail Kartal deploying Kahveci in the role during the player's situation at the club.[13]
| Club | Season | League | Turkish Cup | Europe | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Hacettepe (loan) | 2013–14 | TFF Third League | 34 | 4 | 4 | 2 | – | – | 38 | 6 | ||
| Gençlerbirliği | 2014–15 | Süper Lig | 24 | 5 | 6 | 1 | – | – | 30 | 6 | ||
| 2015–16 | Süper Lig | 32 | 3 | 1 | 1 | – | – | 33 | 4 | |||
| 2016–17 | Süper Lig | 15 | 1 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 16 | 1 | |||
| Total | 71 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 79 | 11 | ||
| İstanbul Başakşehir | 2016–17 | Süper Lig | 12 | 1 | 4 | 0 | – | – | 16 | 1 | ||
| 2017–18 | Süper Lig | 25 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4[a] | 0 | – | 33 | 2 | ||
| 2018–19 | Süper Lig | 32 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 2[a] | 0 | – | 37 | 4 | ||
| 2019–20 | Süper Lig | 29 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10[b] | 2 | – | 39 | 6 | ||
| 2020–21 | Süper Lig | 18 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6[c] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 6 | |
| Total | 116 | 12 | 12 | 2 | 22 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 150 | 19 | ||
| Fenerbahçe | 2020–21 | Süper Lig | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 12 | 0 | ||
| 2021–22 | Süper Lig | 24 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 4[a] | 0 | – | 29 | 4 | ||
| 2022–23 | Süper Lig | 27 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 10[d] | 3 | – | 42 | 7 | ||
| 2023–24 | Süper Lig | 31 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 14[e] | 6 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 18 | |
| 2024–25 | Süper Lig | 26 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 14[f] | 1 | – | 42 | 3 | ||
| 2025–26 | Süper Lig | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2[c] | 0 | – | 5 | 0 | ||
| Total | 123 | 22 | 9 | 0 | 44 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 176 | 32 | ||
| Career total | 344 | 47 | 34 | 6 | 66 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 444 | 68 | ||
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turkey | |||
| 2018 | 6 | 0 | |
| 2019 | 8 | 0 | |
| 2020 | 3 | 0 | |
| 2021 | 4[a] | 1 | |
| 2022 | 3 | 0 | |
| 2023 | 6 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 7[b] | 2 | |
| 2025 | 4 | 1 | |
| Total | 41 | 5 | |
| No. | Date | Venue | Cap | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1[25] | 20 June 2021 | Baku Olympic Stadium, Baku, Azerbaijan | 21 |  Switzerland |
1–2 | 1–3 | UEFA Euro 2020 |
| 2[26] | 16 June 2023 | Skonto Stadium, Riga, Latvia | 25 |  Latvia |
3–2 | 3–2 | UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying |
| 3[27] | 11 October 2024 | Samsun 19 Mayıs Stadium, Samsun, Turkey | 36 |  Montenegro |
1–0 | 1–0 | 2024–25 UEFA Nations League B |
| 4[28] | 15 October 2024 | Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland | 37 |  Iceland |
1–1 | 4–2 | |
| 5[29] | 20 March 2025 | Rams Park, Istanbul, Turkey | 38 |  Hungary |
3–1 | 3–1 | 2024–25 UEFA Nations League promotion/relegation play-offs |
Turkey squads | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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