Fethi Demircan

Fethi Demircan — Biography

Fethi Demircan is a Turkish football manager whose career in the game stretched over sixty years. He took Galatasaray to the Turkish Cup in 1975-76 and won the second division with both Kocaelispor and Samsunspor, taking them up. Fatih Terim, Şenol Güneş, Tanju Çolak and Metin Tekin are among the players he coached.

After Elazığ High School he became a non-commissioned officer in the Turkish Armed Forces and served in Korea and Cyprus. He played amateur football during his service; İstanbulspor wanted to sign him professionally but his mandatory duty stood in the way, and, unable to play, he decided to become a coach. He began managing at Elazığspor in 1973, then studied at a sports academy in Hungary and in England; he worked as an observer coach at Arsenal and in 1975 agreed to join West Ham United as an assistant coach.

He returned to Turkey on Galatasaray's offer, assisted Don Howe, took charge when Howe left and won the cup in a final decided on penalties. After assisting Malcolm Allison he led the team again in 1977-78 and again finished third. He managed Boluspor, Kocaelispor, Bursaspor, Samsunspor and Düzcespor and was in charge of the national team in 1982. He coached in Turkey until 2001, then moved to amateur sides; in 2007 he also took a role with the women's national teams.