Fatih Terim (born 4 September 1953) is a Turkish professional football manager and former player.
During his football career, he played for Ceyhanspor, Adana Demirspor and Galatasaray. In his eleven years of playing time for Galatasaray, he won the Prime Minister's Cup in 1975 and in 1979, the Turkish Cup in 1975–76, 1981–82 and 1984–85 seasons and the Turkish Super Cup in 1982 with the club. Terim has managed several clubs in Turkey, AC Milan and Fiorentina in Italy, as well as the Turkey national team, most recently from 2013 to 2017.
In a survey conducted by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) in 80 countries, he was placed among the best eight managers in the world, receiving his award at a ceremony held in Rothenburg, Germany, on 8 January 2001. On 25 April 2007, Terim received the order of "Commendatore" awarded by the Italian state. In 2008, he received a nomination for UEFA manager of the year and Eurosport named him the best coach at UEFA Euro 2008. In December 2008, he was ranked the seventh-best football manager in the world by World Soccer magazine in 2008.
In 1969, Terim began his professional football career with Adana Demirspor. Because of his financial difficulties, he was the only player in the team who was being paid secretly by the club at the time. He became the team captain three years later. He attracted attention with the game he displayed in Adana Demirspor, who became the champions of the 2nd League in the 1972–73 season. Terim played for Adana Demirspor until 1974, when he joined Galatasaray as a sweeper on 8 July 1974. Terim played eleven years for the Istanbul club. During that time, the club never won the Turkish league championship trophy.
He played for the Turkey national team 51 times between 1974 and 1985 and was the national team captain for 35 international matches, setting the national record in both categories at that time. In 1985, he had a fight with referee Hamza Alan for showing a red card to his teammate in a match and Terim was also shown a red card. It is alleged that Terim refused to leave the field, provoked the tribunes and was removed from the field by police forces. He decided to quit football after receiving a five-match penalty.
Terim's jubilee was held at Ali Sami Yen Stadium. He showed up to his jubilee match, which was between Trabzonspor and Galatasaray, by landing on the pitch by helicopter while the game was being played.
During his time as a footballer, he drew attention with his undisciplined behaviour and was frequently fined. Abdullah Gegiç, a famous football coach with Partizan in the former Yugoslavia and Eskişehirspor in Turkey, knew Terim from his days as a central defender and described him as an intelligent defender with "Beckenbauer-like" qualities. Gegiç attributed Terim's successes as a coach to the unique understanding of the game that he developed while playing as a central defender.
After retiring from professional football, his first training appointment came from Jupp Derwall while they were both at Galatasaray. Terim's coaching career began when he was appointed the coach of Ankaragücü. He coached the club for 18 months before moving on to coach Göztepe in İzmir for a year. He had no significant success with either team. He was appointed as assistant to Turkey's national coach, Sepp Piontek, in 1990. He also coached the Turkey under-21 team. After serving as assistant coach for three years, he was appointed coach in 1993. Under his management, Turkey qualified for the final tournament of European Football Championship in 1996, for the first time in its history. Although they did not perform well in the tournament, losing all their matches and not scoring any goals, qualification was still considered a great achievement for Turkish football.
After Euro 1996, Terim signed a contract with Galatasaray. The club had invested in strong (international) players such as Gica Hagi, Gica Popescu, Taffarel and Ilie as well as high-potential (academy) players such as Emre. Under his management Galatasaray won the Turkish league championship for four consecutive years and the UEFA Cup in 2000, making Terim the most successful Galatasaray manager in its history. His departure allowed Mircea Lucescu to clinch the UEFA Super Cup in 2000 for Galatasaray.
Terim moved from Galatasaray to the Italian Serie A, signing a one-year contract with Fiorentina. His aggressive style of football and his tense relationship with club president and owner Vittorio Cecchi Gori made Terim popular among Fiorentina fans. With new boys Brazilian Leandro Amaral and Portugal's Nuno Gomes doing well up front, with a steadier defence and with Portuguese playmaker Rui Costa blossoming under Terim's constant praise and encouragement Fiorentina became a strong team in Italy. The league wins against A.C. Milan (4–0), Internazionale, Udinese and holding Juventus to a 3–3 draw came in a fortnight when the Florence club cruised into the final of the Coppa Italia eliminating Milan 4–2 on aggregate. Despite his poor start in the UEFA Cup (eliminated 5-3 on agg. by Tirol Innsbruck in the first round), Terim had managed to communicate something of himself to both his players and to the club's demanding fans. Even as Cecchi Gori was beginning to count the cost of sacking him, the fans made it clear that they were on the side of Terim.
However, later he announced that he would not renew his contract by the end of the season, because Cecchi Gori did not intend to make the investments that he requested. The team's performance declined significantly from then on because of his continuing clashes with Cecchi Gori led Terim to resign on 26 February 2001, before the season ended. Fiorentina director general Giancarlo Antognoni, one of the greatest players in the club's history, also resigned along with Terim's entire coaching staff, despite the fact that Cecchi Gori had begged him to stay.
The Romanian football legend Gheorghe Hagi praised his work in Florence: "In five months he built up a phenomenal side at Fiorentina. Name me another foreigner capable of that. He's extraordinary – he could coach any side." Prior his leave from Florence there were rumours that Terim would join Milan next season.
On 18 June 2001, Terim signed a two-year contract with A.C. Milan replacing the caretaker manager Cesare Maldini. He transformed Milan's system, employing a style very similar to the total football of Rinus Michels, playing a 4–3–1–2 formation with Rui Costa as a key player, whom he brought from his previous team, Fiorentina. Terim built a highly attacking side, but during this period Milan was also notorious for being vulnerable at the back, often conceding goals unexpectedly and drawing against "underdog" teams.
On 5 November 2001, after the 0–1 defeat against Torino his contract was terminated after only five months of work and he was replaced by Carlo Ancelotti, despite the fact that Terim had received a vote of confidence from Milan vice-president Galliani following a 1–1 draw with bottom-placed Venezia in mid-October. However Paolo Maldini had admitted that the players must share the blame for Terim's sacking as manager: "Terim's failure was also our failure. Now the team must look at themselves as there are no more excuses. Maybe it was the players' fault because we couldn't put Terim's teachings into action". Another reaction was made by midfielder Brocchi about the pressure from the board of directors to Terim: "From the beginning there was a lot of external pressure on Terim as well as many dubious episodes that made one think there wasn't 100% faith in him".
Return to Galatasaray (second term)
In the summer of 2002, Terim returned to Galatasaray after Lucescu resigned at the end of the 2001-2002 season despite winning the league. Terim brought back Ümit Davala and Hakan Ünsal from the UEFA Cup winning squad and transferred Felipe to the number 10 position. On 11 August 2002, Terim's second Galatasaray campaign started successfully with a 4–1 victory over Samsunspor in the first week of the Süper Lig. After going undefeated for the first 10 weeks, the team suffered a historic 6-0 defeat to arch-rival Fenerbahçe on 6 November 2002. In the same period, the team was also eliminated in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League after a disappointing performance. Although Galatasaray improved its performance under Terim later on, and had a winning streak in the league, it lost to Beşiktaş on 25 May 2003 with a last minute goal scored by Sergen Yalçın and lost the championship to Beşiktaş, coached by Lucescu.