Bülent Korkmaz
| Bulent.JPG | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Position(s) | Assistant Manager | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Gençlerbirliği | ||
| ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 28 August2006 | |||
Bülent Korkmaz (born 24 November 1968) is a retired legendary Turkish football player. He is thought to be one of the best players Turkey has produced, both for Galatasaray and Turkey's national side. His positioning and marking skills were world class and he was also known to wind up his opponents. He is the first Turkish international to reach 100 caps. His loyalty is very rare, playing for Istanbul club Galatasaray SK his whole career between 1987-2005, despite continuous offers from several top clubs. He was nicknamed "Büyük Kaptan" (the Great Captain) by Galatasaray fans.
He is one of the most successful players in Turkish football, with more than 20 trophies including one UEFA Cup and one UEFA Super Cup, as well as 9 League championships. Another interesting statistic about Bülent Korkmaz is that the number of his European appearances is actually higher than the total number of European games played by Galatasaray's rivals, Fenerbahce and Besiktas, in European Cups (as of September 2004).
Before the 2005-2006 season, he retired from playing profession football and signed (on 30 August 2005) as asistant manager for Turkish football team Gençlerbirliği. He resigned from duty in Gençlerbirliği. Towards the end of his career, Bulent was honoured by UEFA on his birthday after a successful career.
Bülent's true courage was determined during the UEFA Cup final of 2000 between Galatasaray and Arsenal F.C.. His shoulder was dislocated and doctor's strongly urged him to leave the park. A near fainting Bülent declined, making sure he'd see Galatasaray lift the UEFA Cup trophey. Doctor's strapped his shoulder to his chest and Bülent played a most inspirational match, despite his continuous roars of pain.
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