Mustafa Denizli (born 10 November 1949) is a Turkish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former player. He has managed many notable Turkish football clubs, including ''"

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Big Three"'' ( Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray and

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, and ...

) and has won the Süper Lig title three times. He is the only manager in

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

to win the Süper Lig with three clubs.

Managerial career

Early years

Denizli was appointed manager of

FK Khazar Lankaran Khazar Lankaran FK ( tly, Xəzər Lankon Futboli Klub, script=Latn, az, Xəzər Lənkəran Futbol Klubu) is an Azerbaijani football club based in Lankaran that last played in the Azerbaijan Premier League during the 2015–16 season. Since the ...

on 3 December 2013, with a one-and-a-half year deal. On 16 May 2014, Denizli terminated his contract with Khazar. He also has worked outside Turkey with

Alemannia Aachen Alemannia Aachen () or ATSV Alemannia 1900 is a football in Germany, German football club from the western city of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. A long term fixture of the country's 2. Bundesliga, second division, ''Alemannia'' enjoyed a three- ...

in Germany, Pas and Persepolis in Iran and Khazar Lankaran in Azerbaijan. He managed the Turkish national team for four years and reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2000. On 23 December 2011, he returned to Persepolis but resigned at the end of the season. He spent 17 years with his hometown club Altay in

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 agglo ...

, gaining a reputation as one of the best players in the position of attacking left forward in the league's history. On 9 October 2008 he signed a 1-year contract with

. On 30 May the club claimed its 13th Süper Lig title under his guidance. Denizli is the only one in Turkey who have won the

national league The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

with the " "three biggest""

football clubs A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all-s ...

;

, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray as a manager. With 2008–09 league title, Denizli also clings to the achievement of being "the one and only Turkish coach

earned the league title with". 2 June 2010 According to a number of reports from Turkey, experienced gaffer Denizli has resigned as head coach of

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 ...

titans

due to medical reasons.

Third term at Galatasaray

On 19 November 2015, Galatasaray manager

Hamza Hamzaoğlu Hamza Hamzaoğlu (born 1 July 1970) is a Turkish professional football manager and former player. Club career Hamzaoğlu began his career in 1988 with İzmirspor. In 1995, he transferred to Galatasaray as captain and midfielder, where he won th ...

left his position as a result of mutual agreement. On 22 November 2015, Denizli said "Galatasaray's president called me. I am going to meet with him tomorrow, negotiating for managerial position" on TRT Spor broadcast. A day later, Galatasaray's president

Dursun Aydın Özbek Dursun is a masculine Turkish given name, it may refer to: Given name * Dursun Karataş (1952–2008), Turkish communist * Dursun Karatay (born 1984), Austrian footballer * Dursun Sevinç (born 1972), Turkish weightlifter Surname * Adem Dursun ( ...

met with Denizli at Point Hotel

and he said "I offered managerial position to Mustafa Denizli and he accepted in principle. We will sign the official contract in a few days" on the press conference. Denizli commented "I started my career's unforgettable success' here and I want close the parenthesis here." Before the signing, Denizli followed UEFA Champions League match, Galatasaray played with

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

Vicente Calderón Stadium The Vicente Calderón Stadium ( es, Estadio Vicente Calderón ) was the home stadium of Atlético Madrid from its completion in 1966 to 2017, with a seating capacity of 54,907 and located on the banks of the Manzanares, in the Arganzuela distric ...

. But in this match, the team was managed by

Cláudio Taffarel Cláudio André Mergen Taffarel (; born 8 May 1966) is a Brazilian retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and is the goalkeeping coach of English Premier League club Liverpool and the Brazil national team. During an 18-year career he p ...

as the interim manager. On 26 November 2015, he signed a contract until June 2017 in

Florya Metin Oktay Sports Complex and Training Center Florya Metin Oktay Facilities ( tr, Florya Metin Oktay Tesisleri), is the training ground and academy base of the Turkish football club Galatasaray SK. The Florya training camp land was brought during the presidency of Suphi Batur, built and open ...

. Denizli started his third term at Galatasaray with a 2–2 draw against Kasımpaşa in

. Team was beat

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği (), commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Bursa. Formed in 1963, the club colours are green and white, with home kits usually featuring both colours in a striped pattern. In th ...

with 3-0 in Ali Sami Yen Sports Complex, which is his second match. On 8 December 2015, team draw against 1-1 with

FC Astana Astana Football Club ( kk, Astana Futbol Kluby) is a professional football club based in Astana. They play in the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest level of Kazakh football. The club's home ground is the 30,254-seat Astana Arena stadium. Th ...

but they took third place in UEFA Champions League C Group and qualified for

2015–16 UEFA Europa League knockout phase The 2015–16 UEFA Europa League knockout phase began on 16 February and concluded on 18 May 2016 with the final at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, to decide the champions of the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League. A total of 32 teams competed in t ...

. He said "This was the hardest 90 minutes of my career." after the game. His last European match in

1991–92 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1991–92 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup was won by Werder Bremen in the final against Monaco. Both were first-time finalists in the competition. Defending champions Manchester United were eliminated by Atlético Madrid in the second ...

with Werder Bremen while he was a coach of Galatasaray until this match. MDenizli cropped

His first derby was with

Atatürk Olympic Stadium The Atatürk Olympic Stadium ( tr, Atatürk Olimpiyat Stadyumu, ) is a stadium in Istanbul, Turkey. Located in the western district of İkitelli, it is the largest-capacity stadium in the country. The stadium is named after Mustafa Kemal Atat ...

and Galatasaray lost 2-1 this match. Besides, this was first defeat of Denizli on third term. After this, Galatasaray was met with

Akhisar Belediyespor Akhisarspor Kulübü (Akhisar Sports Club), commonly known as Akhisarspor, is a Turkish professional football club located in the city of Akhisar.

, impending

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 ...

and beat in two matches. Denizli went outside

with Kastamonuspor match since appointed of manager. Denizli resigned from his duty on 1 March 2016.

Kasımpaşa

On 2 October 2018, Denizli was appointed as the head coach of Kasımpaşa. Denizli resigned in May 2019 two weeks before the end of the season.

Tractor

Denizli was appointed as head coach of

Tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...

in June 2019. One of his biggest successes during his career at Tractor FC, was winning the Persepolis–Tractor rivalry and when he was the head coach, Tractor defeated Persepolis after more than five years. However, he was sacked on 7 December 2019 after a series of bad results, including a 4–2 home loss to Esteghlal.

Career statistics

Player

International

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

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Altay *

: 1966–67, 1979–80

Managerial

Galatasaray *

: 1987–88 *

: 1990–91 *

Cumhurbaşkanlığı Kupası The KTFF Super Cup ( tr, KTFF Süper Kupası), formerly known as Cumhurbaşkanlığı Kupası ("Presidential Cup"), was the super cup tournament of the Cyprus Turkish Football Federation, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It was created in 1981 ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

Fenerbahçe *

: 2000–01 Beşiktaş *

: 2008–09 *

: 2008–09 Çaykur Rizespor *

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 ...

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Altay *

Playoffs:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Awards and achievements

* 1.Lig top goalscorer: 1979–80 at Altay *

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

's 11th best national team coach in the world: 2000

Notes

References

External links

* * * *
Mustafa Denizli – Coach profile
at Mackolik.com
Mustafa Denizli
at Eurosport.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Denizli, Mustafa 1949 births Living people People from Çeşme Cretan Turks Turkish footballers Turkey international footballers Turkish football managers Altay S.K. footballers Galatasaray S.K. footballers Galatasaray S.K. (football) managers Fenerbahçe football managers Beşiktaş J.K. managers UEFA Euro 2000 managers Expatriate football managers in Iran Tractor S.C. managers Süper Lig players Alemannia Aachen managers Turkey national football team managers Süper Lig managers Manisaspor managers Çaykur Rizespor managers Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Iran Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Turkish expatriate football managers Khazar Lankaran FK managers Association football forwards Expatriate football managers in Germany Persian Gulf Pro League managers