About Me
Fatih Terim is one of the most successful footballers and trainers in Turkey. He is the current coach of the Turkish national team. Born on September 4, 1953 in Adana, Turkey into a poor family, he attended a vocational high school but soon dropped out of school to play soccer.In 1969 Terim's professional football career began as a junior player with Adana Demirspor. Because of financial difficulties, he was the only player in the team who was being secretly paid by the club at the time. Within three years, he became captain of the team. He recalls his first game with the captain badge: "Just before the game, I cheered up my teammates, as a captain has to do, and ran out to the field. As I looked back on the field, no one was behind me. I was so fast that nobody could follow me. I was so excited." Terim played 6 more years with Adana Demirspor.As a successful central defender he joined Galatasaray SK in 1974 and played for 11 years for this team. However, during his time with Galatasaray, the club was not able to win the championship trophy in the Turkish league. Terim was called to the Turkish national team 51 times, from 1984 to 1995, and was the team captain for 35 national matches, establishing the national record for both categories.After he retired from playing soccer, he worked as the coach of MKE Ankaragücü for two years and at the soccer club Göztepe in Izmir for one year. He was appointed technical director of the Turkish national team in 1993. Three years later, the Turkish national team succeeded in qualifying for the final tournament of the Euro '96 under his leadership. Although the national team didn't exactly perform well (losing all the games, and not being able to score a single goal), the feat was hailed as a great achievement for Turkish soccer. After the tournament, Fatih Terim signed a contract with Galatasaray. Under his management Galatasaray won the championship in the Turkish league for four successive years. Crowning his achievements with the huge success of winning the UEFA Cup at 2000 making him the most successful Galatasaray manager ever, he has become a legend for both Galatasaray and Turkish soccer. After this success big clubs like Real Madrid, AC Milan and FC Barcelona were chasing after Terim. But Terim snubbed all the offers to get a transfer to ACF Fiorentina, Italy.Fiorentina fans love Terim the mostly because he changed the team and trashed the likes of Milan (4-0) and held Juventus to a (3-3) thrilling draw. Players like Rui Costa, Nuno Gomes and Francesco Toldo cited Terim as an excellent manager. He is still in the hearts of Fiorentina fans and he is often linked back to the club from Firenze. When Fiorentina had to let him go because of financial difficulties, he was named the coach of AC Milan. He was also instrumental in bringing Rui Costa and Umit Davala to the club.He transformed AC Milan into a better team with a different style of play very smiliar to the Total football style of Rinus Michels but this style was named the Terim style. It was a simple 4-3-1-2 formation with Rui Costa as the playmaker the idea was that the back players pushed up front and that their position would be filled up by another team player. Players like Andriy Shevchenko and Filippo Inzaghi respected Terim and wanted to work for him. He won the TIM Cup and reached the third round of the UEFA Cup. However, several disappointing results robbed him from his post that only lasted 5 months he then returned to Galatasaray. Internal problems with Galatasaray’s management, financial difficulties of the club, and failing to perform as well as expected from a national hero he was, led him to resign there as well and to take a break in his managing career in March 2004. In 2005, Terim was asked to coach the Turkish National Team for five years and he accepted.Terim, a charismatic leader who values professional discipline and organization and amateur passion, was nicknamed "Imparator" (Turkish for "Emperor") in Turkey and abroad. In a survey conducted by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) in 80 countries, Fatih Terim was placed among the best eight soccer coaches in the world. He received his award at a ceremony held in Rothenburg, Germany on January 8, 2001
