Murat Yakin ( tr, Yakın; born 15 September 1974) is a Swiss

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 is the manager of the

Switzerland national football team The Switzerland national football team (german: Schweizer Fussballnationalmannschaft, it, Nazionale di calcio della Svizzera, french: Équipe nationale suisse de football, rm, Squadra naziunala da ballape da la Svizra) represents Switzerland ...

Playing career

Yakin spent the longest spell of his career playing for his hometown club

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

, where he was the defensive linchpin, captain and libero of a team which enjoyed domestic and relative European success. He won the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

on five occasions (1995, 1996, 2002, 2004, 2005), and the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

three times (1994, 2002, 2003). He recalls the 2002–03 Champions League second leg qualifying match on 28 August 2002 against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

as the "match of his life". Basel won the game 2–0, with Yakin scoring the second goal in the 22-minute as Basel qualified 3–3 on the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

for the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concent ...

. In 2003, he played in the

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

"Match against Poverty" in Basel, on Ronaldo's team which won 4–3 against

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most ...

's. Yakin was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

49 times for the Switzerland national team, representing his country at

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

Coaching career

Early career

Yakin was appointed coach of

FC Thun Fussballclub Thun 1898 is a Swiss football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club plays in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of the Swiss football league system, following relegation from the Swiss Super League in the ...

in 2009 after a time as a youth coach at

Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshop ...

and head coach of

FC Frauenfeld FC Frauenfeld is a Swiss football team that currently plays in 2. Liga Interregional, the fifth tier in the Swiss football pyramid. The club was founded in 1906. They finished the 2008/2009 season in 13th position in Group 5 resulting in releg ...

. Yakin led Thun to promotion in his first year as manager there, winning the

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the winners of the league are promoted to the Super League, while the ...

in 2010. In his second season with the club, Thun managed to finish 5th in the

and earned a spot in the

second qualifying round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

of the following season's UEFA Europa League. In May 2011, he joined

FC Luzern Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (german: Luzern). It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league syste ...

for a reported 200,000 Swiss francs. He took over from

Christian Brand Christian Brand (born 23 May 1972) is a German football coach and former player who coaches Werder Bremen youth teams. Playing career A midfielder, Brand began his career at VfB Oldenburg and made his debut for the club on 27 August 1991 in a ...

, who was made caretaker after the sacking of

Rolf Fringer Rolf is a male given name and a surname. It originates in the Germanic name ''Hrolf'', itself a contraction of ''Hrodwulf'' ( Rudolf), a conjunction of the stem words ''hrod'' ("renown") + ''wulf'' ("wolf"). The Old Norse cognate is ''Hrólfr''. ...

Basel

On 15 October 2012, Yakin was appointed as the new manager of FC Basel. Under his management, Basel won twice, home and away, against

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in the 2013–14 Champions League

. He praised the supporters in the stadium, saying that they pushed the team to win through the 90 minutes. He was also delighted to have received praise from then Chelsea manager

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix GOIH (; born 26 January 1963), is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Italian Serie A club Roma. Once dubbed "The Special One" by the British ...

. On 17 May 2014, FC Basel announced Yakin was no longer with the club after he guided them to two domestic titles in as many years.

Spartak Moscow

On 16 June 2014, Yakin was appointed as manager of

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 ...

side

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * WB ...

. According to Russian media, the deal was a long-term contract with Yakin earning an annual salary of 1.6 million euros ($2.18 million). On 30 May 2015, after only one season with the club, his contract with the club was terminated after a mutual agreement.

Return to FC Schaffhausen

On 17 June 2019, it was confirmed, that Yakin had returned to FC Schaffhausen as their new manager having left

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

previously that year.

Switzerland national team

On 9 August 2021, Yakin was appointed as the manager of the Switzerland national team. In the 2022 World Cup qualification,

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

held reigning European champions

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

to a goalless draw, thereby ensuring that Switzerland qualified for the tournament and Italy had to play in the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. In gratitude, he sent 9.3 kg of

Swiss chocolate Swiss chocolate is chocolate produced in Switzerland. While cacao beans and other ingredients such as sugar cane originate from outside Switzerland, the actual production of the chocolate must take place in Switzerland. Switzerland's chocolates h ...

to the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team. ...

. In the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

, he led Switzerland to finish second in their group, in order to qualify to the round of 16, where they lost 6–1 to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Personal life

Yakin is the elder brother of

Hakan Yakin Hakan Yakin ( tr, Hakan Yakın; born 22 February 1977) is a Swiss football coach and a former player who played as a forward or midfielder. He is the manager of Schaffhausen. He was a member of the Swiss national team for eleven years. Early ...

, who was also a professional footballer with successful stints at

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

, and

BSC Young Boys BSC Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation ) are a Swiss sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 15 Swiss league championships and six Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss football clubs internationally, reac ...

and represented

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

at international level also. Yakin is of Turkish descent.

Managerial statistics

Honours

As a player

Basel *

: 2001–02, 2003–04, 2004–05 *

: 2001–02, 2002–03 Individual * Swiss Young Player of the Year: 1994 * Axpo Swiss Super Leaguer Player of the Year: 2002

As a manager

Thun *

: 2009–10 Basel * Swiss Super League: 2012–13, 2013–14

References

External links

* *
Murat Yakin
on the website of FC Basel
Article detailing Murat's connection with two of his passions: kebabs and Turkish rap
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yakin, Murat 1974 births Living people Swiss people of Turkish descent Swiss footballers Footballers from Basel Association football defenders Switzerland international footballers UEFA Euro 2004 players Bundesliga players Swiss Super League players Süper Lig players Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers FC Concordia Basel players FC Basel players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players VfB Stuttgart players Grasshopper Club Zürich players Swiss football managers Russian Premier League managers FC Frauenfeld managers FC Thun managers FC Luzern managers FC Basel managers FC Basel non-playing staff FC Spartak Moscow managers FC Schaffhausen managers Grasshopper Club Zürich managers Switzerland national football team managers Swiss expatriate footballers Swiss expatriate football managers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate football managers in Russia 2022 FIFA World Cup managers