Okan Buruk (born 19 October 1973) is a Turkish professional football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of Süper Lig club Galatasaray. 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.
![]() Buruk in 2012 | ||||||||||||||||
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Okan Buruk | |||||||||||||||
Date of birth | (1973-10-19) 19 October 1973 (age 49) | |||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Istanbul, Turkey | |||||||||||||||
Height | 1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)[1] | |||||||||||||||
Position(s) | Midfielder | |||||||||||||||
Club information | ||||||||||||||||
Current team | Galatasaray (manager) | |||||||||||||||
Youth career | ||||||||||||||||
?–1984 | Karadeniz İdman Ocağı | |||||||||||||||
1984–1991 | Galatasaray | |||||||||||||||
Senior career* | ||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||||
1991–2001 | Galatasaray | 189 | (33) | |||||||||||||
2001–2004 | Inter Milan | 24 | (2) | |||||||||||||
2004–2006 | Beşiktaş | 43 | (1) | |||||||||||||
2006–2008 | Galatasaray | 19 | (2) | |||||||||||||
2008–2010 | İstanbul B.B. | 28 | (0) | |||||||||||||
Total | 304 | (38) | ||||||||||||||
National team | ||||||||||||||||
1989–1990 | Turkey U16 | 5 | (0) | |||||||||||||
1990–1992 | Turkey U18 | 28 | (4) | |||||||||||||
1992–1995 | Turkey U21 | 13 | (1) | |||||||||||||
1992–2010 | Turkey | 56 | (8) | |||||||||||||
Teams managed | ||||||||||||||||
2013–2014 | Elazığspor | |||||||||||||||
2014–2015 | Gaziantepspor | |||||||||||||||
2015–2016 | Sivasspor | |||||||||||||||
2016–2017 | Göztepe | |||||||||||||||
2017–2018 | Akhisarspor | |||||||||||||||
2018–2019 | Çaykur Rizespor | |||||||||||||||
2019–2021 | İstanbul Başakşehir | |||||||||||||||
2022– | Galatasaray | |||||||||||||||
Honours
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*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Okan Buruk played for Turkish giants Galatasaray between 1991 and 2001, winning six Turkish Süper Lig titles 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.
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 substitute for Seedorf. He made his first Champions League appearance 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 assist 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.
He played two seasons for Beşiktaş and he won the Turkish Cup in 2006.
In 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.
After his contract expired with Galatasaray, Okan joined İstanbul B.B. in July 2008 and retired two years later.
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. Okan was also part of the 2002 FIFA World Cup squad, but due to an injury he made his only appearance as a substitute in the 3–2 win against host nation South Korea in the third-place play-off.
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.[2]
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 title.
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.[3]
On 23 June 2022, Okan was appointed as coach of his former club Galatasaray.[4]
He is originally from Trabzon. He married model and former Miss Turkey winner Nihan Akkuş on 3 July 2007. His brother, Fuat, was also a professional footballer and currently a coach.[5]
Source:[6]
Club | Season | League | Cup | Continental[lower-alpha 1] | Total | |||||
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Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
Galatasaray | 1991–92 | 1. Lig[lower-alpha 2] | 1 | 2 | — | — | 1 | 2 | ||
1992–93 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 0 | ||
1993–94 | 2 | 0 | — | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | |||
1994–95 | 20 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 27 | 0 | ||
1995–96 | 28 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 33 | 1 | ||
1996–97 | 16 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 19 | 3 | ||
1997–98 | 24 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 34 | 4 | ||
1998–99 | 28 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 42 | 13 | ||
1999–00 | 28 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 15 | 3 | 48 | 12 | ||
2000–01 | 26 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 43 | 2 | ||
Total | 188 | 30 | 32 | 5 | 39 | 3 | 259 | 38 | ||
Internazionale | 2001–02 | Serie A | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 0 |
2002–03 | 15 | 2 | — | 7 | 0 | 22 | 2 | |||
2003–04 | 3 | 0 | 2 | — | 4 | 0 | 9 | 0 | ||
Total | 24 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 38 | 2 | ||
Beşiktaş | 2004–05 | Süper Lig | 22 | 0 | — | 4 | 2 | 26 | 2 | |
2005–06 | 21 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 29 | 2 | ||
Total | 43 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 50 | 3 | ||
Galatasaray | 2006–07 | Süper Lig | 15 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 22 | 2 |
2007–08 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 1 | ||
Total | 19 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 30 | 3 | ||
İstanbul BB | 2008–09 | Süper Lig | 17 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 18 | 0 | |
2009–10 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 0 | — | 13 | 0 | |||
Total | 28 | 0 | 3 | 0 | — | 31 | 0 | |||
Career total | 302 | 35 | 3 | 0 | 65 | 5 | 369 | 40 |
Source:[7]
National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
---|---|---|---|
Turkey | 1992 | 1 | 0 |
1998 | 3 | 0 | |
1999 | 5 | 0 | |
2000 | 8 | 2 | |
2001 | 9 | 2 | |
2002 | 7 | 2 | |
2003 | 9 | 1 | |
2004 | 9 | 0 | |
2005 | 4 | 1 | |
2010 | 1 | 0 | |
Total | 56 | 8 |
Team | Nat | From | To | Record | |||||||
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G | W | D | L | Win % | |||||||
Elazığspor | ![]() |
30 October 2013 | 2 June 2014 | 33 | 11 | 6 | 16 | 033.33 | |||
Gaziantepspor | ![]() |
1 August 2014 | 10 June 2015 | 42 | 15 | 9 | 18 | 035.71 | |||
Sivasspor | ![]() |
27 October 2015 | 8 February 2016 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 018.18 | |||
Göztepe | ![]() |
1 August 2016 | 22 March 2017 | 32 | 14 | 7 | 11 | 043.75 | |||
Akhisarspor | ![]() |
28 March 2017 | 30 June 2018 | 54 | 24 | 11 | 19 | 044.44 | |||
Çaykur Rizespor | ![]() |
24 September 2018 | 29 May 2019 | 32 | 11 | 12 | 9 | 034.38 | |||
İstanbul Başakşehir | ![]() |
11 June 2019 | 29 January 2021 | 79 | 36 | 18 | 25 | 045.57 | |||
Galatasaray | ![]() |
23 June 2022 | present | 15 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 066.67 | |||
Total | 298 | 123 | 68 | 107 | 041.28 |
Galatasaray
Beşiktaş
Turkey
Akhisarspor
İstanbul Başakşehir
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