Turkish former international footballer

*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Okan Buruk (born 19 October 1973) is a Turkish professional football manager and former player. He last managed the Süper Lig club İstanbul Başakşehir. As a former midfielder, he played for Galatasaray, Inter Milan, Beşiktaş, and İstanbul B.B. He was capped 56 times for the Turkey national team.

Contents

• 1 Club career
  • 1.1 Inter Milan
  • 1.2 Besiktas
  • 1.3 Return to Gala
  • 1.4 İstanbul Başakşehir
• 2 International career
• 3 Managerial career
• 4 Personal life
• 5 Career statistics
  • 5.1 Club
  • 5.2 International
  • 5.3 Managerial
• 6 Honours
  • 6.1 Player
  • 6.2 Manager
• 7 References
• 8 External links

Club career

Okan Buruk played for Turkish giants Galatasaray between 1991 and 2001, winning six Turkish Süper Lig *les and the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup. He was also named man of the match as Galatasary upset Real Madrid 2–1 to win the 2000 UEFA Super Cup.

Inter Milan

In 2001, he was signed by Italian Serie A club Inter Milan along with his teammate Emre, where he played for three years. On August 26, 2001, Okan made his debut against Perugia coming in as a subs*ute for Seedorf. He made his Champions League for Inter in a home game win against Ajax on September 25, 2002.

On October 21, 2001, in the derby game against Terim's Milan, Okan made the *ist to Kallon where Inter lost their home game 4-2 against their rivals.

Okan scored his first goal on the 89th minute helping his team to earn a 2-2 draw in an away game against Roma on November 16, 2002. Okan was a non-stop running player with energy; he mentioned that his former coach Cuper yelled at him from the bench that he should stay at his position.

Besiktas

On He played two seasons for Beşiktaş and he won the Turkish Cup in 2006.

Return to Gala

On July 2006, Okan made his return to his former club Galatasaray by signing a two-year contract. After becoming Süper Lig winners in 2007-08 season his contract was not extended and Okan left the club.

İstanbul Başakşehir

After his contract expired with Galatasaray, Okan joined İstanbul B.B. in July 2008 and retired two years later.

International career

Okan made 56 appearances for the Turkey national team, representing the country at UEFA Euro 2000 and the 2002 FIFA World Cup. He scored Turkey's first ever Euro goal, the equaliser of Euro 2000 in a 2–1 loss to Italy in Arnhem. At the 2002 World Cup, Okan made his only appearance as a subs*ute in the 3–2 win against host nation South Korea in the third-place play-off.

Managerial career

After his playing career, Okan became a professional manager. On 10 May 2018, he guided Akhisarspor to their second trophy in their history, the 2017–18 Turkish Cup.

After Akhisarspor, he managed Çaykur Rizespor from 2018 until 2019, before becoming the new manager of İstanbul Başakşehir on 11 June 2019. In his first season in charge, Buruk guided the club to their first ever league *le.

In early 2021, he left İstanbul Başakşehir on "mutual agreement" after a string of poor results by the club under his management in the 2020–21 Süper Lig season.

Personal life

Buruk married model and former Miss Turkey winner Nihan Akkuş on 3 July 2007. His brother, Fuat, was also a professional footballer and is the current *istant manager of Osmanlıspor.

Career statistics

Club

Source:

International

Source:

Managerial

As of match played 27 January 2021

Honours

Player

Galatasaray

• UEFA Super Cup: 2000
• UEFA Cup: 1999–2000
• Süper Lig: 1992–93, 1993–94, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2007–08

Beşiktaş

• Turkish Cup: 2006

Turkey

• FIFA World Cup 3rd place: 2002

Manager

Akhisarspor

• Turkish Cup: 2017–18

İstanbul Başakşehir

• Süper Lig: 2019–20

References

External links

• Okan Buruk – FIFA compe*ion record (archived)
• Okan Buruk at National-Football-Teams.com
• Okan Buruk at the Turkish Football Federation
• Okan Buruk coach profile at Soccerway