Ferhat Akbaş (born April 12, 1986) is a Turkish volleyball coach and former volleyball player. He is tall. He Is the currently coach of Eczacıbaşı Dynavit and

Japan women's national volleyball team The Japan women's national volleyball team (Hinotori Nippon, 火の鳥NIPPON), or ''All-Japan women's volleyball team'', is currently ranked 7th in the world by FIVB. The head coach is Ferhat Akbaş. One of their greatest successes was at the 19 ...

. He is a graduate of business administration from

Kocaeli University Kocaeli University ( Turkish: Kocaeli Üniversitesi) is a state university in İzmit, Turkey. It was founded as the Academy of Engineering and Architecture of Kocaeli in 1976. The electrical and mechanical engineering departments, basic scien ...

Career

Player

At first Akbaş wanted to become a basketball player, however as he missed the date of the qualification, found himself in volleyball. He played volleyball in Marmara College and Arçelik volleyball clubs. Ferhat Akbaş was a member of the

Turkey men's national volleyball team The Turkey men's national volleyball team is the men's national team of Turkey. It is governed by the Turkish Volleyball Federation and takes part in international volleyball competitions. Medals Competitions Olympic Games World Championshi ...

. His career as a player did not last long as he chose to pursue a coaching career.

Coach

He began his technical staff career as a statistics coach at

Galatasaray women's volleyball Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

team in 2004, and continued until 2006. The next season, he transferred to Türk Telekom Ankara to serve in the same position. His next post was the assistant coach of

Lang Ping "Jenny" Lang Ping (; born 10 December 1960) is a Chinese former volleyball player and coach. She is the former head coach of the Chinese women's national volleyball team and U.S. women's national volleyball team. As a player, Lang won the mos ...

at Türk Telekom Ankara in the 2011–12 season. Then, he followed her to China, where he served from 2011 to 2012, and enjoyed champion title with Evergrande Hengda team. In the playing-free summer time, he went to Turkey to serve as statistics coach of Serbian-French Veljko Basic, who was the head coach of the Turkey men's volleyball team. During his time in China, he received an offer from Vakıfbank women's team to serve as assistant coach of

Giovanni Guidetti Giovanni Guidetti (born 20 September 1972) is an Italian volleyball coach. He is the current coach for Canada women's national volleyball team. He has been coaching Turkish team Vakıfbank Spor Kulübü since 2008. He coached the Turkey women's ...

. In 2013, he became the assistant coach of Massimo Barbolini at

Turkey women's national volleyball team The Turkey women's national volleyball team () is formed by the Turkish Volleyball Federation (TVF) and represents Turkey in international CEV and FIVB organizations. The team is the most successful national sports team in the country and h ...

. At the age of only 28, he was appointed head coach of the Turkish women's national team, which won the gold medal at the

2014 Women's European Volleyball League The 2014 Women's European Volleyball League was the sixth edition of the annual Women's European Volleyball League, which featured women's national volleyball teams from eight European countries. Turkey defeated Germany 6–2 in the final, which ...

. At the final match, he guided the Turkish team to victory against the German national team, which was coached by his former boss Giovanni Guidetti. On 29 April 2021, Eczacibasi Vitra announced the appointment of Ferhat Akbaş as the new Head Coach of Eczacıbaşı VitrA. Akbaş who won the Polish League title last season as the coach of Chemik Police will be the head coach starting with the 2021–2022 season. Akbaş was appointed head coach of the

Croatia women's national volleyball team The Croatia women's national volleyball team represents Croatia in international women's volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball ...

in January 2022. In August the same year, he managed the Croatia team finish the 2022 FIVB Women's Volleyball Challenger Cup as champion, and get promoted to the

2023 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League The 2023 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League was the fifth edition of the FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League, an annual Women's international volleyball tournament. The competition was held between 30 May to 16 July 2023, and the final rou ...

. After two years with the Croatia team, the and him separated in December 2023. In February 2025, Akbaş signed a deal as head coach of the

, which will last until the end of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. He became so the only foreign head coach of the team's history. He had served as assistant coach of the team in the years 2017 and 2018. He coached the Japan team first at the

2025 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League The 2025 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League is the seventh edition of the FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League, an annual women's international volleyball tournament. It is currently held from 4 June to 27 July 2025, with the final round t ...

on 4 June.

Honours

As assistant coach

Clubs

; Evergrande Hengda * ''Winner'' (1): ** 2011–12

Chinese Volleyball League Chinese Volleyball Super League, often abbreviated to CVL (abbreviation remain unchanged), are the pre-eminent men's and women's professional volleyball leagues in China. It was founded in 1996 as the Chinese Volleyball League and is organized by ...

; Vakıfbank * ''Winners'' (6): **

2012–13 Turkish Women's Volleyball League The 2012–13 Turkish Women's Volleyball League (), was the annual season of the country's highest volleyball level and was conquered for 7th time in a row by VakıfBank S.K. Teams # Vakıfbank Spor Kulübü, VakıfBank # Eczacıbaşı VitrA # ...

2013–14 Turkish Women's Volleyball League The 2013–14 Turkish Women's Volleyball League is the 31st edition of the top-flight professional women's volleyball league in Turkey. Regular season League table SourceTurkish Volleyball Federation Play-out Playoffs SourceTurkish V ...

2012–13 Turkish Women's Volleyball Cup The 2012–13 Teledünya Turkish Women's Volleyball Cup () was the 15th edition of Turkish Women's Volleyball Cup. It was held between October 6, 2012 and February 24, 2013. Vakıfbank won the cup defeating the title defender Eczacıbaşı VitrA ...

2013 FIVB Volleyball Women's Club World Championship The 2013 FIVB Women's Club World Championship was the 7th edition of the event. It was held in Zürich, Switzerland, from 9 to 13 October 2013. Vakıfbank Istanbul won the title and Jovana Brakočević was named Most Valuable Player. Qualificat ...

2012–13 CEV Women's Champions League The CEV Champions League was the highest level of European club volleyball in the 2012–13 season and the 54th edition. It ran from 22 October 2012 until 11 March 2013. Fenerbahçe were the winner of the previous year. VakıfBank İstanbul w ...

** 2013

Turkish Women's Volleyball Cup The Turkish Women's Volleyball Cup (), is a national cup for professional women's volleyball in Turkey, organized by the Turkish Volleyball Federation since the 1994-95 season. Between 2003 and 2008, the event was not held five consecutive season ...

* ''Runner-up'' (1): ** 2013–14 CEV Women's Champions League -

As coach

National teams

;

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

* Winners (3) **

2015 Montreux Volley Masters The 2015 Montreux Volley Masters is a women's volleyball competition set in Montreux, Switzerland between May 26 – 31, 2015. Turkey won the tournament for the first time by winning 3-2 to Japan in the championship match. Japanese Yuki Ishii was s ...

2015 European Games The 1st European Games (), also known as the 2015 European Games or Baku 2015 (), were the inaugural edition of the European Games, an international multi-sport event for athletes representing the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of the Europe ...

* Runners-up (1) **

2015 FIVB Volleyball Women's U23 World Championship The 2015 FIVB Volleyball Women's U23 World Championship was held in Ankara, Turkey, from 12 to 19 August 2015. This was the second edition of the tournament. Competition formula The competition format will see the 12 teams split into two pools of ...

;

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

* Winners (1) ** 2022 FIVB Women's Volleyball Challenger Cup

Club teams

*Winners (2) ** Romanian Championship 2017–18 ** Romanian Cup 2017–18

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akbas, Ferhat 1986 births Kocaeli University alumni Turkish men's volleyball players Turkish volleyball coaches Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Romania Turkish expatriate sportspeople in China Living people Volleyball coaches of international teams Turkey women's national volleyball team coaches Place of birth missing (living people) Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Poland Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Japan Croatia women's national volleyball team coaches 21st-century Turkish sportsmen Japan women's national volleyball team coaches