Fatih Akyel (born 26 December 1977) is a Turkish football manager and former professional player. He played as a defender for clubs such as

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 ...

and Fenerbahçe during his 15-year career. He was capped by the Turkey national team 64 times from 1997 to 2004, and also won a silver medal with the Olympic team at the

1997 Mediterranean Games The XIII Mediterranean Games, commonly known as the 1997 Mediterranean Games, were the 13th Mediterranean Games. The Games were held in Bari, Italy, from 13 to 25 June 1997, where 2,956 athletes (2,166 men and 790 women) from 21 countries partici ...

Club career

Born in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

, Fatih began his professional career with local club

. He signed his first professional contract with the club on 31 July 1995. However, he did not make any appearances for the team, and was transferred to

Bakırköyspor Bakırköyspor is a Turkish sports club from Bakırköy, Istanbul. The club was founded in 1949. The colours of Bakırköyspor are green-black. Bakırköyspor played in the Turkish Super League for 3 years, but after several unsuccessful seasons, ...

the following season. Fatih made 29 appearances for the club, and earned his first cap for the

Turkey national under-21 football team Turkey's national Under-21 football team ( tr, Ümit Milli Futbol Takımı), also known as Turkey Under-21s or Turkey U-21s, is the Under-21 years of age team of the Turkey national football team. History This team is for Turkish players aged 2 ...

. At the end of the season, he returned to Galatasaray. He played for the club for four years, winning three

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 ...

titles and three

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 Kupas� ...

titles. He was also a part of the team that won the

1999–2000 UEFA Cup The 1999–2000 UEFA Cup season was the 29th edition of the UEFA Cup competition. The final took place at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen and was won by Galatasaray, who defeated Arsenal in the final. The game was scoreless through the first nin ...

and

2000 UEFA Super Cup The 2000 UEFA Super Cup was a football match played on 25 August 2000 between Real Madrid of Spain and Galatasaray of Turkey. Real Madrid qualified by beating Valencia in the 2000 UEFA Champions League Final, while Galatasaray had made it to the ...

, assisting

Mário Jardel Mário Jardel de Almeida Ribeiro (; born 18 September 1973) is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He was most noted for his positioning on the field and his heading ability. He was a legend for Grêmio, play ...

's game winner against Real Madrid. Fatih joined RCD Mallorca at the beginning of the 2001–02 season, but he made a quick return to Turkey, signing for Fenerbahçe on 4 December 2001 after five appearances for the Spanish club. With Fenerbahçe, he won another Süper Lig title in 2003–04. Fatih made 70 appearances for the club before his contract was terminated on 8 November 2004. He signed with German club

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seasons in the Bundeslig ...

in 2005, making one appearance. PAOK signed him the following season, where he made 16 appearances before returning to Turkey at the winter break, this time to

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Trabzon. Formed in 1967 through a merger of several local clubs, the men's football team has won seven Süper Lig championships. Trabzonspor also have a women's football team, ...

. He spent one season with the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

club before being transferred to Gençlerbirliği on 1 February 2007. However, he did not make any appearances for the club. Fatih later signed for

MKE Ankaragücü MKE Ankaragücü or fully Makina ve Kimya Endüstrisi Ankaragücü (), is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Ankara. The football team wears a yellow and navy kit and plays its home matches at Eryaman Stadium following the closure of t ...

on 2 July 2007, but quickly left the club, signing for Kasımpaşa on 3 September 2007. He spent three years with the club, with the last year on loan at

Kocaelispor Kocaelispor is a Turkish football club based in İzmit. They were founded in 1966 and played in the top level between 1980–1988 and 1992–2003. Their best finish was in 1992–93 season, where they finished fourth. They have won the Turkish C ...

. On 27 January 2010, Fatih signed with

KFC Uerdingen 05 KFC Uerdingen 05 is a German football club in the Uerdingen district of the city of Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. The former Bundesliga side enjoyed its greatest successes in the 1980s but now plays in the fifth-level Oberliga. History Th ...

. However, two days later he announced via

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

that he would not join the club. Akyel last played for Tepecikspor, making one appearance for the club before he was arrested in March 2010 on allegations of match-fixing in 2007 and 2008.

International career

Fatih began his international career with the U-18 team in 1995, earning nine caps. He was promoted to the Turkey U21 national team in 1996, where he won one cap. He participated in the

, starting all five matches en route to winning a silver medal. In seven years, Fatih won 64 caps for the Turkey national team. He was a part of the Turkey squad that finished in third place at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

. He was also a part of the Turkey squad that qualified for the knockout stages of

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 wa ...

, and the squad that finished third at the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Honours

Galatasaray *

: 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000 *

: 1995–96, 1998–99, 1999–2000 *

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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

: 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 original ...

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 S ...

Fenerbahçe *

: 2003–04 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 *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

: Quarter Finalist

* Mediterranean Games: Silver Medal

References

External links

*
TFF.org profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Akyel, Fatih 1977 births Living people Footballers from Istanbul Turkish footballers Turkey international footballers Turkey under-21 international footballers Turkish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Greece Süper Lig players Bundesliga players Association football defenders Galatasaray S.K. footballers Bakırköyspor footballers RCD Mallorca players Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers VfL Bochum players PAOK FC players Trabzonspor footballers Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers MKE Ankaragücü footballers Kasımpaşa S.K. footballers Kocaelispor footballers Tepecikspor footballers UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players Turkey youth international footballers Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Turkey Competitors at the 1997 Mediterranean Games UEFA Cup winning players Mediterranean Games medalists in football