Ertuğrul Özkök: Who is Chobani, whose triple photo was viewed 46 million times?
Tonight, there will be a dinner at the Four Season Hotel on the Bosphorus in Istanbul, which I think is historic for Turkish football.
This will be a meaningful meal not only for Turkish football but also for the Turkish economy.
Let me say right from the start, its importance is much greater than its monetary size…
Ali Koç sent invitations to 200 peopleThe dinner is hosted by Fenerbahçe Club President Ali Koç .
Of course, the second host of the dinner will be Hamdi Ulukaya, the owner of Chobani brand, with which Fenerbahçe has signed a new sponsorship agreement.
This also marks the return and promotion of Ulukaya, one of the most successful emerging businesspeople in the United States in the last 20 years, to Türkiye, the country where he was born and raised.
Invitations were sent to nearly 200 people for the dinner.
The US Ambassador and Consul General in Ankara are also invited.Among them are the US Ambassador to Ankara and the Consul General in Istanbul.
This is a wide guest list, from the governor to some mayors, leading figures from the business and sports worlds, and members of the media.
One meaning of this dish is:
For the first time, a brand name that does not exist in the Turkish market is entering Turkish football...
How would you interpret such a €120 million deal?If you look at the financial aspects of the deal, you might say, "It's only enough to buy two superstar footballers."
The agreement for the stadium name and the Chobani logo on jerseys in European matches is as follows:
10 million Euros will be paid annually for the stadium's naming.
But it's a 5 plus 5 deal, meaning it's a 10-year deal and comes to 100 million euros.
In addition, a second agreement of 2 plus 3 years was made for the name to be on the shirt in European matches.
That is 4 million Euros per year and will increase as good results are achieved and the finals are approached.
After all, this is a huge deal worth 120 million euros…
But I think the importance of this agreement goes beyond its financial dimension.
I've noticed that some Fenerbahçe fans have had questions in their minds for the last week.
First, let me say this: this is not just a Fenerbahçe incident.
The beginning of a new era in Türkiye's football industry.
So, before tonight's dinner, let me tell you a little about Ulukaya, whom I've known since he founded Chobani.
Let me introduce your wife, whom I met at a dinner in Saint Tropez three weeks ago.We had dinner with him in Saint-Tropez earlier this month.
He came with his wife.
If you want, I can start introducing Fenerbahçe's new sponsor with his wife, whom I got to know better at that dinner.
His wife is of French origin.
Her name is Louise Vongerichten …
Her mother is American and her father is French.
Her father is world-famous chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten …
In short, his wife is a woman who works in gastronomy culture.
They had their official wedding in New York in 2018.
But the wedding was held at the Esma Sultan Mansion in Istanbul upon the request of their families.
His parents live on the southern coast of France.
Let me first tell Fenerbahçe fans where the name "Chobani" comes from.
Ulukaya was born in 1972 in the İliç district of Erzincan.
He is the child of a Kurdish nomadic family.
His family was engaged in animal husbandry and dairying.
A Kurdish child who does not know KurdishHowever, he does not know Kurdish because he left his village at the age of 9.
After graduating from Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences, he went to the USA in 1994.
In 2005, he bought a discontinued dairy products factory with a loan and started yoghurt production.
Its brand is written in English as “Chobani”.
The word was derived from the Turkish word "Shepherd".
The company he founded on behalf of his family is called “Sheperd Futures…”
So the name of the company is “Shepherd…”
Ulukaya is a visionary businessman.
After creating the Chobani brand and reviving the old factory, he transformed yogurt making, his father's profession in the village, into a modern creation.
The brand suddenly entered the competition with America's giant dairy products brands and gained a place for itself.
The brand he created in 2005 became the leading yogurt brand in the United States six years later, with sales of $1 billion.
30 percent share in the yogurt market, peaking with OzempikMeanwhile, ozempic and similar drugs, which found widespread use as a slimming drug, paved the way for it even further.
Because all doctors recommended ozempik users to eat yogurt.
And eventually, Chobani became a brand that now holds 30 percent of the American yogurt market.
He took a nearby coffee brand and expanded itBut the success didn't end there.
After their yogurt became an instant success, they started buying other brands as well.
In 2023, he acquired and expanded the espresso and coffee products brand “La Colombe”.
One of the most ambitious projects in the basketball world today is to create a world basketball club championship by organizing a joint league with the NBA's EuroLeague.
Fenerbahçe is one of the four teams from Europe included in this project.
Acquired the first beer brand founded by gold prospectorsIf you go to San Francisco these days, one of the city's biggest talking points is the new owner of the region's oldest legendary brewery.
During the gold rush in the 19th century , German gold prospectors who came here established one of the city's first breweries.
This company, Anchor Brewing Company, had ceased production and was up for sale.
However, Japan's giant brewers were also interested in the brand.
Ulukaya won the war.
Anchor Steam Beer, produced by this company, is known as one of San Francisco's cult beers.
One of the 100 most influential people in the United States according to Fast CompanyThis rapid rise put him in the mainstream of the US business world.
The famous business magazine Fast Company named him one of the 100 most influential people in the United States.
He received the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur award in 2013. In 2019, he was recognized by Inc. magazine as "one of the most important entrepreneurs of the last decade." According to Forbes, his net worth is estimated at approximately $2.3 billion as of July 2025.
He meets and has dinner with two of the most influential people in the USA , Bill Gates and Warren Buffet .
The first name of the family foundation was "Shepherd's Gift "Chobani directs 10 percent of its net profits to education, hunger relief, and civil society support projects through the Chobani Foundation.
Let me share an interesting detail. This foundation's former name was Shepherd's Gift. In 2015, by signing the "Giving Pledge," he pledged to donate the majority of his wealth to refugees .
He established a company culture that implemented a profit-sharing system, granting employees a 10 percent stake in the company . Approximately 30 percent of his employees are refugees and immigrants. He implemented six weeks of paid parental leave for all employees. He also advocated for a minimum wage increase in New York City.
Yes, there is such a person and culture behind the word “Chobani” that will be written on the Fenerbahçe jersey.
At this point, let me tell you about a photo that was much talked about in the Fenerbahçe community last week and was viewed 46 million times.
What a triple frame viewed 46 million times tells usThere were three people in the photo.
On one side, Murat Ülker , the representative of the “Ülker” brand, which gave its name to the Fenerbahçe stadium and financed the arena where the basketball team played for years;
On the other side, the new sponsor is Hamdi Ulukaya, representative of the Chobani brand;
And in the middle is Fenerbahçe Club President Ali Koç…
This was like a handover photo.
Only one of the three was wearing a Fenerbahçe jersey.
The new sponsor is Hamdi Ulukaya.
Murat Ülker said. This photo was shared and viewed 46 million times on social media.
This is also Fenerbahçe's greatness.
This is not a handover, but the continuity of Fenerbahçe support.As I looked at this photo, the immense services that Aziz Yıldırım and Murat Ülker provided to this club flashed before my eyes once again.
I think they are a vision and a sacrifice that no Fenerbahçe fan will ever forget.
This photo is not a handover.
It tells me about the continuity of being a Fenerbahçe fan.
The jersey at the Pladis Centre in LondonI am sure that the Murat Ülker I know will continue his visionary and financial contributions to Fenerbahçe for many years to come.
There's only one thing striking about his modest room at the Pladis headquarters in London.
A Fenerbahçe jersey on a hanger.
I wore it when I was 9. I still don't take it off.
Fenerbahçe's new goal is an NBA-sized arenaFenerbahçe now has another big goal in front of them.
Today, “Ülker Arena”, one of the most modern and largest arenas in the EuroLeague, is no longer enough.
The team needs an arena close to the size of the one where NBA games are played.
That is, an arena with a capacity of at least 20,000, or even 25,000 people.
This is a project of such magnitude that it will change the dimensions of the EuroLeague.
There are attempts to do this in place of Kenan Evren High School, which is behind the stadium.
I think Murat Ülker, the current financier of the arena, has dreams about that too.
Guys! If Liverpool is spending $1 billion this season, let's think about it.Turkish football has always been governed with an introverted approach to financial matters.
However, the trend in the world is now heading towards a global event.
Behind Paris Saint-Germain's (PSG) success this year lies the impact of football opening up to Arab capital in a country like France.
Liverpool, which won the Premier League this year, is spending close to $1 billion on transfers.
The investor behind it is an American.
He also owns the Boston Red Sox team.
Both football and basketball need this kind of cosmopolitanism.
One of the most ambitious projects in the basketball world today is to create a world basketball club championship by organizing a joint league with the NBA's EuroLeague.
Fenerbahçe is one of the four teams from Europe included in this project.
I say this with my legendary striped jersey that I wore when I was 9 years old.Therefore, as a Fenerbahçe fan, I put my photo in front of me, taken when I was 9 years old, wearing my striped jersey with a tie at the collar from the Lefter Küçükandonyadis and Can Bartu era, and I think as follows.
It would be very wrong for us Fenerbahçe fans to view this incident with the classic clichés and negative emotions of Turkish domestic politics.
Not just a name on a jersey, but a success storyFenerbahçe is not winning tonight with a simple name written on its stadium and jersey.
At the same time, he gains a role model, a personality who has written a sustainable success story for all his fans.
As in the name Ülker, he adds a great success story to that jersey for the second time.
Both are global success stories that go beyond Türkiye's borders.
That's why tonight's dinner is so important.
If a Kurd from the Şavak tribe of Elazığ became Fenerbahçe's sponsorFenerbahce is a Turkish team.
The team of modern Türkiye.
A team of people who are devoted to Atatürk 's republic.
It is a team that is a candidate to win the hearts of people from every faith, every ethnicity and every region, with both the conservative and the modern of Türkiye.
If a Kurdish child from the Şavak tribe of Elazığ becomes Fenerbahçe's sponsor today, this is a very good thing for Fenerbahçe.
It is also a very good thing for Türkiye.
I asked ChatGPT; Is Hamdi Ulukaya a US citizen?Hamdi Ulukaya's arrival has great significance in this respect as well.
A person who carries a Turkish passport in his pocket. A search I conducted on ChatGPT yielded the following results:
“To date, there has been no information that he has acquired American citizenship.
In their biographies and interviews, the phrase "Turkish citizen born in Türkiye" is used.
I won't be able to attend this historic dinner tonight because...For these reasons, I see tonight's dinner as the beginning of a new era not only for Fenerbahçe, but also for Turkish football and sports.
I invite the entire Fenerbahçe community to look at this incident from this perspective.
Not only Fenerbahçe, but also the entire Turkish sports sector gained a valuable and creative individual who holds a Turkish and US passport.
I won't be able to be at this dinner tonight.
Because I'm going to listen to a Wagner opera at the Bayreuth Festival, which I've been attending for 10 years...
Call it my snobbishness if you like.
I no longer feel the need to prove my 69-year-old soul with sticks…
T24
