Uğur Yıldırım

Uğur Yıldırım — Biography

Uğur Yıldırım is a Dutch former footballer and coach of Turkish origin, best known for his accuracy from set pieces. He won the Freekick Masters tournament in Marbella ahead of names such as Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldinho, a result that brought him a call-up to the Netherlands national team. Since leaving the pitch he has worked as a coach in the Go Ahead Eagles academy.

Born in Apeldoorn, he started playing in 1990 at VV Brink en Orden, moved to the Go Ahead Eagles academy in 1998 and reached the first team in 2000. Until 2004 he scored 44 goals in 119 matches there, including six in a single Eerste Divisie game against Cambuur in 2003-04. That form took him to Eredivisie side Heerenveen, where in his first season he scored seven league goals with 19 assists in 34 matches. His playing time shrank over the next two seasons and in 2007 he moved to Gaziantepspor. In Turkey he played for Gaziantepspor, Sivasspor and, in 2009, Kasımpaşa, then returned in 2010 to his hometown club AGOVV Apeldoorn. He later played amateur football for CSV Apeldoorn.

He won his only cap for the Netherlands in a 0-0 friendly against England in Birmingham on February 9, 2005, coming on as a substitute; with dual citizenship he had had to choose between the Netherlands and Turkey and had picked the Netherlands. Around 2016 he stopped playing and became an assistant coach at CSV Apeldoorn; he coached the Vierde Klasse side TKA in 2017-2019 and has been in charge of the Go Ahead Eagles U16 team since 2020.