Necati Ateş (; born 3 January 1980) 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 ...

who played as a forward. He is the current assistant manager of

Greek Super League The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

club Panathinaikos.

Club career

Born in

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

, Ateş made his professional debut with Altay S.K. and

Adanaspor Adanaspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional Association football, football club based in Adana; currently, they play in the TFF First League. The club was founded in 1954 by middle-class merchants and artisans in response to their perceived ali ...

, scoring for both at an impressive rate. In 2004, he signed with

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 ...

giants Galatasaray SK. In 2005–06, Ateş played an integral part in Galatasaray's 16th national championship conquest. However, on 25 July 2007, club manager Karl-Heinz Feldkamp officially reported to the board he was not planning to use the player in the upcoming season, which resulted in a transfer list; he split (always on loan) the campaign between

Ankaraspor Sincan Belediyesi Ankaraspor Kulübü, commonly known as Ankaraspor (), is a Turkish professional football club based in the country's capital Ankara. Founded in 1978, the club competes in the TFF Second League. The club was known as Osmanlıspor ...

and

Istanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, netting 11 goals in total. For 2008–09 another loan ensued, as Ateş joined

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

. Though heavily featured, he only managed to score once and the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

side finished sixth, thus failing to return to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

. In the 2009 summer, after more than 100 official matches and over 50 goals, Galtasaray released Ateş. He immediately joined fellow league club

Antalyaspor Antalyaspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional multi-sport club based in Antalya, southern Turkey. The club's colours are red and white. The association football, football side play their home matches at the Antalya Stadium. In Turkey, the cl ...

, ranking joint-fourth in the topscorers' list as it finished ninth. On the last day of the January 2012

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

, Ateş signed a six-month contract with old acquaintance Galatasaray for a fee of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

250,000. He scored his first goal in his second spell on 4 February in a 2–1 win at

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 matc ...

, and went on to have an important offensive role as the team won the domestic league.

International career

Ateş made his Turkey national team debut during the

2003 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup football tournament was the sixth FIFA Confederations Cup, held in France in June 2003. France retained the title they had won in 2001, but the tournament was overshadowed by the death of Cameroon player Marc-Vivi ...

, playing three times for the third-placed nation and going scoreless in the process. His first goal came on 26 March 2005, in a 2–0 home win against

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

qualifiers. He also netted in the turbulent

playoff 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 ...

against

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, in November.

International goals

''Scores and results table. Turkey's goal tally first:''

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Club

;Galatasaray *

: 2005–06, 2011–12 *

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 ...

: 2004–05 *

Turkish Super Cup The Turkish Super Cup, known as Turkcell Super Cup () for sponsorship reasons, is a super cup tournament in Turkish football. Founded in 1966 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2025 by four teams: the winners ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

International

;Turkey *

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 ...

: 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 ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ates, Necati 1980 births Living people Footballers from İzmir Turkish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Süper Lig players TFF 1. Lig players Altay S.K. footballers Adanaspor footballers Galatasaray S.K. footballers Ankaraspor footballers İstanbul Başakşehir F.K. players Antalyaspor footballers Eskişehirspor footballers Kayseri Erciyesspor footballers Karşıyaka S.K. footballers Segunda División players Real Sociedad footballers Turkey men's youth international footballers Turkey men's under-21 international footballers Turkey men's B international footballers Turkey men's international footballers 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players Turkish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Galatasaray S.K. (football) non-playing staff Turkish football managers Turkish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Greece Turkish expatriate sportspeople in Greece 21st-century Turkish sportsmen