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 lea ...

and current manager of TFF 1. Lig club Esenler Erokspor. 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 player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for Galatasaray 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.

Club career

Korkmaz started his career at Galatasaray Futbol Akademisi as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

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

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

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. 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. 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 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, CONMEBO ...

. Korkmaz also represented Turkey in EURO 96.

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 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 () champion under the auspices of the Turkish Football Federation (; TFF). This tournament was conducted under t ...

, 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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. On 23 February 2009, after the departure of Michael Skibbe, 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, for the first time at club's history. On 13 November 2012, Korkmaz replaced Carlos Carvalhal at İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor. 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 sports and sports culture. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and London. ''Bleacher Report'' was acquired by Time Warner's Turner B ...

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

Personal life

Korkmaz was born in

Malatya Malatya (; ; Syriac language, Syriac ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city has been a human settlement for thousands of y ...

in 1968. His younger brother, Mert Korkmaz (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 called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

third-place:

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

third-place:

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Galatasaray *

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

: 1999–2000 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, 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 offic ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

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

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup () 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''. Now Ziraat Bankası is ...

(6): 1990–91, 1992–93, 1995–96, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2004–05 * Turkish Super Cup: 1988, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997 * Chancellor Cup: 1990, 1995 * TSYD Cup (6): 1987–88, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000 Order * Turkish State Medal of Distinguished Service

References

External links

* * *
Profile at galatasaray.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Korkmaz, Bulent 1968 births Living people 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players Alanyaspor managers Bursaspor managers Çaykur Rizespor managers Esenler Erokspor managers FIFA Men's Century Club Galatasaray S.K. (football) managers Galatasaray S.K. footballers Gençlerbirliği S.K. managers Kayseri Erciyesspor managers Men's association football defenders Sportspeople from Malatya Süper Lig managers Süper Lig players Turkey men's international footballers Turkey men's under-21 international footballers Turkish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Azerbaijan Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Azerbaijan Turkish football managers Turkish men's footballers UEFA Europa League–winning players UEFA Euro 1996 players 20th-century Turkish sportsmen