Fatih Akyel

Fatih Akyel — Biography

Fatih Akyel, born December 26, 1977, in Istanbul, is a Turkish former international footballer and football manager who played as a defender.

He began playing for Altınay, a club from the Karagümrük district, before joining Galatasaray's youth system and breaking into the first team in the 1996-97 season; after a brief spell with Bakırköyspor he returned to Galatasaray, where he won three Süper Lig titles, a Turkish Cup and the UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup. In 2001 he had a short stint at Mallorca before an unexpected move to Fenerbahçe, the club he had supported since childhood, with whom he added another Süper Lig title; later in his career he played for Bochum, PAOK, Trabzonspor, Gençlerbirliği and Kasımpaşa, with a loan spell at Kocaelispor, before finishing his playing days at Tepecikspor in 2010. Capped 64 times for the Turkey national team between 1997 and 2004, he won a silver medal with the Olympic team at the 1997 Mediterranean Games and was part of the squads that reached the quarter-finals of UEFA Euro 2000 and finished third at both the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup.

After retiring he moved into coaching, taking charge of Gümüşhanespor, İnegölspor and Adanaspor in turn, before being appointed sporting director of Lüleburgazspor in 2022. He resigned from Yalova FK in October 2025, and was named head coach of Diyarbakırspor in August 2026, a post that lasted only ten days.