İrfan Buz

İrfan Buz — Biography

İrfan Buz is a football manager who grew up in Germany and built his coaching career in Turkey, holding both Turkish and German citizenship. He is known as the manager who took Yeni Malatyaspor up to the Süper Lig in 2016–17. His spell at Sakaryaspor began in April 2025 and ended in August 2025; his transfer comments have made the news on Turkish sports websites.

Born in Istanbul, Buz moved to Germany with his family in 1971 and graduated from the University of Dortmund as a construction technician. After playing for Sarıyer, Vanspor and Sakaryaspor he returned to Germany in 1995 and started coaching as a player-coach at Barışspor Hackenberg. He earned his UEFA B license in 1999, finishing top of his course, coached from U-11 to U-19 in the German football federation's youth system, and added the UEFA A license in 2005; in 2009 he became a scout for the Turkish national team.

At Bursaspor he first served as Christoph Daum's assistant, then took charge in March 2014 for a Turkish Cup tie away at Galatasaray that ended 2–2 with a late Bekir Yılmaz goal; afterwards he called it the happiest day of his life. He went on to coach Gençlerbirliği, Yeni Malatyaspor and Osmanlıspor. In 2018–19 he turned down a mid-season offer from Samsunspor and spent the year watching players in Europe, then took over the club for 2019–20. He returned to Bursaspor in 2020, joined Kasımpaşa in November 2020 and resigned the same month, and later coached Giresunspor and Şanlıurfaspor.