Yusuf Şimşek

Yusuf Şimşek (born July 20, 1975) is a Turkish football manager and former player. He most recently served as the manager of Balıkesirspor.[2]

Yusuf Şimşek
Şimşek in 2009
Personal information
Full name Yusuf Şimşek
Date of birth (1975-07-20) July 20, 1975[1]
Place of birth Antalya, Turkey
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s) Attacking midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1996–2000 Kemerspor 28 (6)
2000–2002 Denizlispor 82 (39)
2002–2004 Fenerbahçe 89 (9)
2004 → Gaziantepspor (loan) 26 (4)
2004–2005 Ankaraspor 20 (0)
2004–2005 Akçaabat Sebatspor 21 (3)
2005–2008 Denizlispor 89 (16)
2008–2009 Bursaspor 10 (0)
2009–2011 Beşiktaş 42 (7)
2011 Kayseri Erciyesspor 10 (0)
2011–2012 Turgutluspor 8 (3)
Total 425 (87)
International career
2007–2009 Turkey 6 (0)
Managerial career
2011–2012 Turgutluspor (Player / Manager)
2012–2013 Denizlispor
2014 Karşıyaka
2015 Antalyaspor
2016 Karşıyaka
2016–2017 Mersin İdmanyurdu
2017 Denizlispor
2018 Fatih Karagümrük
2019 Afjet Afyonspor
2020 Balıkesirspor
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Fenerbahçe SK

During his time at Fenerbahçe, his teammate Ariel Ortega once highlighted Yusuf's incredible talent with the ball: "This guy could get past a man even in a phone booth".[3]

Later career and Beşiktaş J.K.

As a player with a background in Denizlispor for 4 seasons, in Fenerbahçe S.K. for 2 seasons and in many other Anatolian squads including Ankaraspor, Bursaspor, Yusuf's transition to Beşiktaş J.K. stirred the football community. It was claimed that Trabzonspor made a proposal for Yusuf long before Beşiktaş did, and further that both Bursaspor and Yusuf himself accepted the formal offer that Trabzonspor made. However, that claim was not verified. Actually, Trabzonspor's offer included a part-exchange deal sending Adnan Güngör to Bursaspor; but the deal went off when Adnan refused to exchange teams. Then after Mustafa Denizli's persistence for an efficient playmaker, Yusuf was transferred to Beşiktaş J.K., for a part-exchange deal including Tuna Üzümcü plus 400k euro.

Following the accusations directed by Fenerbahçe and Trabzonspor supporters, which were mainly centered on "betrayal", Yusuf felt the need to make it public that he had always been a Beşiktaş J.K. fan, displaying a childhood photograph where he could be seen in a striped black&white jersey. He further stated that he was deeply affected by the legendary era between early 80s-mid 90s under the helm of Gordon Milne, which includes successive title achievements.[4]

The transfer was severely criticized in Beşiktaş J.K. community as well, due to exchanging 2 promising youngsters for an aging player. In such a harsh climate, where even Beşiktaş board could not give a solid vote for him, he immediately assumed the role of a playmaker, and became one of the key players carrying the team through the way to 2 most important trophies of Turkish football in 2008/09 season. Although his teammate Matias Delgado did not have any real competition for the attacking midfielder position for 2 years up until then, Yusuf was quick to take up the position from his hands. For the 2008/09 season, he made 27 league apps (10 with Bursaspor, 17 with Beşiktaş) and 6 Fortis Turkish Cup apps (all with Beşiktaş); scoring 5 goals at total (3 league goals/2 cup goals; all for Beşiktaş). He especially scored crucial goals against arch-rivals Galatasaray (in league) and Fenerbahçe (in Türkiye Kupası 2008–09 final) as the finals for both competitions draw near.

Kayseri Erciyesspor

On 18 January 2011, Yusuf signed a two-year contract to the Kayseri Erciyesspor. As of 2016, he was playing for Turgutluspor in the TFF Sportoto 2. Lig.[5]

International career

Despite his vast technical capacity and high ball possession skills, unique shuffles, feints and dribbles, Yusuf was able to attain a fame throughout Turkey in his late 20s. Due to playing his most remarkable games through the ages of 26–33, and with the addition of a playing style that is generally labeled as "selfish",[6] he has been called up to national squad only for 6 times. Mainly because of that reason, this right-sided attacking midfielder has been generally the second pick for Fatih Terim as the former head of National Squad, just like his current coach Mustafa Denizli.

Managerial statistics
As of 25 October 2015
Team From To Record
GWDLWin %
Denizlispor 2012 2013 9 4 2 3 044.44
Karşıyaka 2013 2014 38 16 8 14 042.11
Antalyaspor 2015 Present 24 12 6 6 050.00
Total 0 0 0 0 !—

References
  1. Mutlu Yıllar Yusuf Şimşek (in Turkish)
  2. Denizlispor'da Yusuf Şimşek ile yollar ayrıldı‚ fanatik.com.tr, 23 September 2017
  3. Can Yusuf be of use to Beşiktaş? Archived January 18, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Turned out Yusuf has been a Beşiktaş fan from birth Archived October 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Şimşek Profile Page
  6. "Champions League 2009-10, Group B - ESPN Soccernet". Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
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