Fatih Tekke (born 9 September 1977), known by his ''given nickname'' Sultan, is a Turkish football coach and former player who most recently managed

Denizlispor Denizlispor, due to current sponsorship Altaş Denizlispor, is a Turkish sports club based in Denizli. It is known by its distinct green and black colors. The club's branches include football, volleyball, basketball, table tennis, and gymnastics. ...

Club career

Turkey

Tekke was born in the small town of Köprübaşı, in the province of

Trabzon Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the B ...

. He joined

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, ...

, the major team in the area. Tekke was still in his teens when he started to appear in the first team. In 45 matches that he played between 1994–97, he scored six goals. At the beginning of the 1997–98 season he was loaned out to Altay S.K. of

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...

, where he scored eight goals in 24 matches. In a 5–4 defeat to

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 ...

, he scored a hat-trick. However a few weeks later he broke his leg and was out of the game for six months. Upon his return to Trabzonspor, Tekke played another 38 matches and scored six goals before he transferred to

Gaziantepspor Gaziantepspor was a Turkish football club located in the city of Gaziantep. Formed in 1969 and dissolved in 2020, Gaziantepspor were nicknamed the ''Şahinler'' (The Falcons). The club colours were black and red, and they played their home matche ...

in the summer of 2000. In this period he made his first appearance for the Turkey national team. In 2002, Tekke returned to Trabzonspor and was given the captaincy. This was the time Tekke reached the peak of his career. In the 2004–05 season he managed to become the league's top goal scorer with 31 goals, 7 goals ahead of the second placed player and was second for the Golden Foot. During his spell with Trabzonspor, he won two medals for winning the

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� ...

in consecutive seasons.

Russia

In July 2006, he signed for

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

. On 6 August 2006, Tekke scored on his debut for the club, as he came off the bench against Shinnik Yaroslavl and scored the only goal of the game for his team to win 1–0. Tekke scored the winning goal in the

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 ...

group stage in a 3–2 victory over AE Larissa. He assisted the second in the

2008 UEFA Cup Final The 2008 UEFA Cup Final was a football match that took place on 14 May 2008 at the City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England. It was the 37th annual final of the UEFA Cup, UEFA's second tier club football tournament. The match, which was ...

win over Rangers. On 21 October 2008, Tekke scored in the 1–1 draw with BATE Borisov in the Champions League. On 3 February 2010, Tekke signed a three-year contract with

FC Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (russian: Футбо́льный клуб Руби́н Каза́нь, ''Futbolny klub Rubin Kazan'' , Tatar: Рубин Казан) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the second-tier ...

. He only played five games before he decided to return to Turkey, transferring to Beşiktaş.

Back to Turkey

On 1 September 2010, Tekke signed a two-year contract with Besiktas J.K. However, he was only able to play a total of two games before he was sent to Ankaragücü, in the 2010–11 transfer window. In the five matches he played for Ankaragücü, he scored three goals. In the summer transfer season of 2011, the newly promoted team,

Orduspor Orduspor was a Turkish football club founded in 1967. The club was located in Ordu, Turkey and played their home games at 19 Eylül Stadium. The team managed to qualify for the Turkish Super League again in 2011. But, the last spell in top lev ...

, declared that they had purchased Tekke from Ankaragücü. Tekke was given the number 23 and the captaincy of the team. He then moved to Orduspor and retired soon after. He then became a manager.

International career

Tekke was in the Turkey national squad for U15, U16, U17, U18, U21, and for the Turkey national team. For U15, he played six matches and scored no goals. For U16, he played 18 matches and scored five goals, while also winning the

UEFA European Under-16 Championship The UEFA European Under-17 Championship or simply UEFA Under-17 Championship, is an annual Association football, football competition contested by the European men's under-17 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain national under ...

, held in Ireland. For U17, he played ten matches and scored no goals. For U18, he played 13 matches and scored five goals. For U21, he only played one match. Between 1998 and 2007, Tekke played 25 matches and scored nine goals for the Turkey national team.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Turkey's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Tekke goal.''

Managerial statistics

Honours

Turkey *

: 1994 Trabzonspor *

: 2002–03, 2003–04 Zenit Saint Petersburg *

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

: 2007 *

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Russian Cup winners. If the Premie ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

: 2007–08 *

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 ...

Rubin Kazan *

: 2010

References

External links

Profile
at TFF
Fatih Tekke Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tekke, Fatih 1977 births People from Sürmene Living people Association football forwards Turkish footballers Trabzonspor footballers Altay S.K. footballers Gaziantepspor footballers FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players UEFA Cup winning players FC Rubin Kazan players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers MKE Ankaragücü footballers Orduspor footballers Turkey international footballers Turkish expatriate footballers Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate footballers in Russia Russian Premier League players Süper Lig players Turkey youth international footballers Denizlispor managers