Murat Yakın

Murat Yakın — Biography

Murat Yakin has been head coach of the Switzerland national team since 2021 and has taken it to the 2022 World Cup, UEFA Euro 2024 and the 2026 World Cup. At the 2026 tournament he led Switzerland to the quarter-finals for the first time since 1954, where the team was eliminated by Argentina. A Basel-born former defender of Turkish descent, he spent the longest part of his club career with his home-town side.

Yakin turned professional at Grasshoppers in 1992 and, after spells at Stuttgart, Fenerbahçe and Kaiserslautern, went back to Basel, where he became captain and libero. He won five Swiss league titles and three Swiss Cups, and was named the league's player of the year in 2002. He retired at Basel in 2006, having won 49 caps and scored four goals for Switzerland and played at Euro 2004.

He began coaching at Concordia Basel in 2006. At Thun from 2009 he won the Challenge League in his first year, and he coached Basel between 2012 and 2014, winning two league titles, beating Chelsea home and away in the Champions League and being named Super League manager of the year in 2013-14. He coached Spartak Moscow in 2014-15 and also worked at Grasshoppers, Sion and Schaffhausen. With the national team he reached the last 16 at the 2022 World Cup and, at Euro 2024, beat Italy 2-0 to reach the quarter-finals; his brother Hakan Yakin is also an international footballer.