Bülent Korkmaz (born 24 November 1968), colloquially known by his given nicknames "Büyük Kaptan" () and "Cengaver" (), is a Turkish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

and current manager of

TFF First League The TFF 1. Lig, officially known as Spor Toto 1. Lig for sponsorship reasons, is the second level of the Turkish football league system. The league was founded in 2001 as the ''Turkish Second League Category A'' after the reorganization of the ...

club

Çaykur Rizespor Çaykur Rizespor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Rize. The club play in the TFF First League. The club was founded on May 19, 1953, with green-yellow as club colours, but later changed to blue-green. Since 1990, the team ...

. Korkmaz was a one club man during his club career, playing as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other de ...

for his whole career for 18 consecutive seasons between 1987 and 2005, winning 8 Süper Lig, 6 Turkish Cup, 5 Turkish Super Cup,1 UEFA Cup and 1 UEFA Super Cup titles. He is the 13th player in history to make over 100 appearances across European club competitions. Korkmaz has got 102 senior caps for

Turkey national football team The Turkey national football team ( tr, Türkiye Millî Futbol Takımı) represents Turkey in men's international Association football, football matches. The team is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation ( tr, Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu ...

Club career

Korkmaz started his career at Galatasaray Futbol Akademisi as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

in 1979. He changed his field role to become a defender following the advise from his youth coach. He was offered a professional contract by German club

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, th ...

at the age of 16 but he chose to stay at Galatasaray and he was eventually promoted to senior squad in 1987. Korkmaz was a part of squad reaching semi-finals of 1988–89 edition of

UEFA European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competiti ...

. During the 2000 UEFA Cup Final between Galatasaray and

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, he dislocated his shoulder but he declined to quit the game, continued the game until the end following in-field physio treatment where Galatasaray won the cup

after extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

. However, the injury caused Korkmaz eventually to miss

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

competition. Korkmaz was invited to play at "FIFA XI" squad against the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

hosts "Japan & Korea XI" at World Dream soccer exhibition, held at

Yokohama International Stadium , also known as , is a multi-purpose stadium in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, which opened in March 1998. It is the home stadium of Yokohama F. Marinos of the J1 League. International Stadium Yokohama had the highest seating capac ...

on 3 January 2001.

International career

Korkmaz was part of the Turkey national team that finished third at the

and, in 2003, had the same finishing position at the

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, ...

. Korkmaz also represented Turkey in

EURO 96 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

Coaching career

On 30 August 2005, Korkmaz was appointed as the assistant manager at Gençlerbirliği S.K., and resigned during the same season. In January 2007, he signed in

Kayseri Erciyesspor Kayseri Erciyesspor was a Turkish sports club based in Kayseri. History In 1965, Orhan Şefik Apak, then president of the Turkish Football Federation, asked cities in Turkey to combine their amateur football clubs into one singular club that wo ...

as head coach while the team were sitting at the bottom of the ladder. Under Korkmaz's management, Kayseri Erciyesspor reached the final of

2006–07 Turkish Cup The 2006-07 Turkey Cup was the 45th edition of the annual tournament that determined the association football Süper Lig Turkish Cup ( tr, Türkiye Kupası) champion under the auspices of the Turkish Football Federation ( tr, Türkiye Futbol Feder ...

, losing 0–1 to Beşiktaş J.K., however; spotting 17th position, they relegated at the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. On 23 February 2009, after the leaving of

Michael Skibbe Michael Heinz Skibbe (born 4 August 1965) is a German former football player and current manager of Japanese club Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Club career In his youth, Skibbe played for SG Wattenscheid 09, then moved to the professional team of FC Sc ...

, Korkmaz was appointed as the head coach of Galatasaray. Putting a performance of 7 wins out of 15 official games, his was sacked by the club in June 2009. On 8 November 2011, after the resignation of Yücel İldiz, Korkmaz joined Karabükspor as the head coach. Taking the team over from 16th position of standings, he managed the team to finish the season at 12th place, for a safe avoiding the relegation. In same season, Karabükspor reached semi-finals at

2011–12 Turkish Cup 2011–12 Turkish Cup ( tr, Türkiye Kupası) was the 50th season of the Turkish Cup, won by Fenerbahçe. Ziraat Bankası was the sponsor of the tournament, thus the sponsored name was Ziraat Turkish Cup. The tournament began with first qualifyin ...

, for the first time at club's history. On 13 November 2012, Korkmaz replaced

Carlos Carvalhal Carlos Augusto Soares da Costa Faria Carvalhal (; born 4 December 1965) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a centre-back, currently manager of La Liga club RC Celta de Vigo. As a player, he totalled 197 Primeira Liga appearances in ...

İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi S.K., shortly Istanbul BB SK or IBBSK, is a multi-sports club of the metropolitan municipality of Istanbul in Turkey. Branches The club has following sport branches: *Volleyball (Arome Men's League), *Basket ...

. His contract was mutually terminated after his team got relegated as of 30 May 2013.

Style of play and reception

Korkmaz was described as "an aggressive and powerful defender" by

Bleacher Report Bleacher Report (often abbreviated as B/R) is a website that focuses on sport and sports culture. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and London. Bleacher Report was acquired by Turner Broadcasting System in Aug ...

, in 2014. Ozan Kabak, another home-grown Galatasaray player, expressed that he idolised Korkmaz, in 2020.

Personal life

Korkmaz was born in

Malatya Malatya ( hy, Մալաթիա, translit=Malat'ya; Syro-Aramaic ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ku, Meletî; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a large city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city ha ...

in 1968. His younger brother,

Mert Korkmaz Mert Zeki Korkmaz (born 16 August 1971) is a retired Turkish footballer. Early life Korkmaz was born in 1971. He is younger brother of Bülent Korkmaz, a football player. Career Korkmaz played as a defender, and was known for his fighting spi ...

(born 1971) is also a former professional footballer, played also for Galatasaray and holds 5 caps for Turkey. Korkmaz is married with 2 daughters.

Career statistics

Club

:Source:

International

:Source:

Managerial statistics

Honours

Turkey *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

third-place:

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

third-place:

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Galatasaray *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

: 1999–2000 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

(8): 1987–88, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–00, 2001–02 *

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Kupası'') is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası ...

(6): 1990–91, 1992–93, 1995–96, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2004–05 *

Turkish Super Cup The Turkish Super Cup ( Turkish: ''TFF Süper Kupa''), as it is currently known, is the annual super cup football match contested between the previous season's Süper Lig champions and the Turkish Cup winners in Turkey. It was originally known ...

: 1988, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997 *

Chancellor Cup The Prime Minister's Cup ( tr, Başbakanlık Kupası) was a football competition organised by the Turkish Football Federation in Turkey. It began in 1944 and continued until 1950 as a unique kind of super cup competition between the winners of ...

: 1990, 1995 *

TSYD Cup The TSYD Cup ( tr, Türk Spor Yazarları Derneği Kupası, Turkish Sports Writers Association Cup) was a friendly football competition in Turkey. The tournament started in 1963. It was played throughout six regions in Turkey: Adana, Ankara, Istanbu ...

(6): 1987–88, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000

References

External links

* * *
Profile at galatasaray.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Korkmaz, Bulent 1968 births Living people Sportspeople from Malatya Association football defenders Galatasaray S.K. footballers Süper Lig players UEFA Euro 1996 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players Turkish footballers Turkey international footballers FIFA Century Club Turkish football managers Süper Lig managers Kayseri Erciyesspor managers Expatriate football managers in Azerbaijan Bursaspor managers Gençlerbirliği S.K. managers Galatasaray S.K. (football) managers Alanyaspor managers Turkey under-21 international footballers UEFA Cup winning players Turkish expatriate football managers Çaykur Rizespor managers