Tugay Kerimoğlu (born 24 August 1970) 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 ...
who played as a
midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
. He spent the majority of his career for
Galatasaray
Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other dep ...
and
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...
; winning silverware at
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the Govan district of Glasgow which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Although not its official name, it is often referred to as Glasgow Rangers outside Scotland. The fo ...
in-between. He was the coordinator of the Galatasaray youth academy, after a short spell working with
Mark Hughes
Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is the manager of Bradford City.
During his playing career he usually operated as a forward or midfielder. He had two spells at Manchester United, an ...
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, ...
. He started playing football in youth academy of
Trabzonspor
Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Trabzon. Formed in 1967 through a merger of several local clubs, the men's football team has won seven Süper Lig championships. Trabzonspor also have a women's football team, ...
. His father, Ozkan, was a semi-professional footballer before becoming a bank manager and his brother, Tolgay, was also a football player.
He played for
Galatasaray
Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other dep ...
from 1987 to 2000, where he won the Turkish League six times and the
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 ...
four times. The midfielder was made captain at Galatasaray in the 1992–93 season, making him the youngest captain in the history of his club. He had signed for
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
club
Rangers
A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...
in the January 2000 mid season transfer window, and joined
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...
for the 2001–02 season.
Former Galatasaray boss Graeme Souness brought Tugay to
Ewood Park
Ewood Park () is a football stadium in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and the home of Blackburn Rovers F.C., founding members of the Football League and Premier League, who have played there since 1890. It is an all seater multi-sports facil ...
from Scottish side
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the Govan district of Glasgow which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Although not its official name, it is often referred to as Glasgow Rangers outside Scotland. The fo ...
in the summer of 2001 for a £1.3m fee. His debut for Rovers was as a substitute against
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
. His first goal came on 14 October 2001 in a 7–1 home thrashing against
West Ham United
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium ...
in which he scored with a trademark effort from outside the box, lobbing the keeper. Tugay immediately became a fan favourite at
Blackburn
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and nort ...
, where he was an integral part of the club's success on the field since his first season. He missed Blackburn's League Cup final win in 2002 through suspension. Tugay was named Blackburn's Player of the Year in the 2003–04 campaign.
Tugay's final career goal came against
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is admi ...
in a 3–2 Premier League defeat at
Fratton Park
Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history.
The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect Ar ...
on 30 November 2008. He retired from football on 24 May 2009 at the age of 38. His last game was against West Bromwich Albion at home at Ewood Park in front of a crowd of over 28,000 fans, who applauded Tugay during the match when he was substituted in the 85th minute to be replaced by Swedish left back Martin Olsson.
International career
Tugay has represented
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
2002 FIFA World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea ...
, where Turkey finished in the quarter finals of Euro 2000 and third place in the 2002 World Cup. He retired from international football in 2003 after Turkey failed to qualify for Euro 2004 in order to focus on his Blackburn Rovers career. His last match was on 5 June 2007 in a friendly against
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
in Dortmund, Germany. He wore number 94 to commemorate his 94 caps for his country.
attacking midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
or playing in the holding role. He was widely recognised for his ability and was highly rated in the football industry. In 2000, former Romanian midfielder Gheorghe Hagi rated him as one of the finest ball-playing midfielders in Europe, and in 2006,
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
manager Sir Alex Ferguson had suggested that if he were ten years younger, Tugay's ability would make him an ideal player for the Old Trafford team. When Tugay's manager at the time,
Mark Hughes
Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is the manager of Bradford City.
During his playing career he usually operated as a forward or midfielder. He had two spells at Manchester United, an ...
, was asked if he too wished Tugay was ten years younger, his answer was "No, because if he was, he'd be playing in a
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
shirt."
Managerial career
On 3 June 2009, Tugay began working with his former manager
Mark Hughes
Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is the manager of Bradford City.
During his playing career he usually operated as a forward or midfielder. He had two spells at Manchester United, an ...
behind the scenes at Manchester City academy in a coaching role. He was linked for various assistant positions for the Turkish national team after Fatih Terim's departure, however he became the coordinator for the Galatasaray youth academy in February 2010.
On 21 October 2010, Galatasaray SK announced that Tugay was assigned for the position of the new assistant coach for Galatasaray, alongside of Gheorghe Hagi. On 22 March 2011, Hagi was sacked following a string of poor results. Tugay refused to become the head coach until the end of the season, saying it would be wrong to accept the position for the head coach right after the sacking of Hagi.
On 4 October 2013, Galatasaray SK announced that Tugay was assigned again for the position of the new assistant coach for Galatasaray, this time alongside of Roberto Mancini. However, after Mancini's dismissal at the end of the 2013–14 season, he left his position.
In November 2015 he took over the Turkish second division club Şanlıurfaspor and worked as head coach for the first time. In April 2016 he left the club by mutual agreement following a lack of success.
Personal life
Tugay generally keeps himself out of the media spotlight, and even with very good English and an apparent good sense of humour, he rarely gives an interview, even to his previous club's own radio station ( Radio Rovers). Tugay was married to Etkin, a former
Galatasaray
Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other dep ...
and Turkish international basketball player. He has two children, named Berke and Melissa. As a youngster, he was also an extremely promising motor racer, competing as high as a
Formula 3
Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One dr ...
level. Tugay describes himself as a Muslim, stating that it's "something which is in my heart and I don't need to express that to other people".
1992–93
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...
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 ...
Turkish Super Cup
The Turkish Super Cup (Turkish: ''TFF Süper Kupa''), as it is currently known, is the annual super cup football match contested between the previous season's Süper Lig champions and the Turkish Cup winners in Turkey. It was originally known as ...
: 1988, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997
Rangers
*
Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when t ...
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1999–2000
Blackburn Rovers
*
Football League Cup
The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by th ...
Mediterranean Games
The Mediterranean Games is a multi-sport event organised by the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM). It is held every four years among athletes from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Africa, Asia and Europe. The fi ...
:
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
Turkey
*
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIFA), the ...
Third place:
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...
Individual
*Blackburn Rovers Player of the Year: 2003–04