The key facts

  • The TFF appointed Sergen Yalçın as head coach of the Turkey national football team for four years
  • He replaced Vincenzo Montella after the group-stage exit at the 2026 World Cup and four consecutive defeats in the Nations League
  • Yalçın became the 48th coach in the team's history and the 27th Turkish specialist in the post

Yalçın's appointment

The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) announced on Tuesday, October 20, the appointment of Sergen Yalçın as head coach of the national team. The federation's executive committee approved the candidacy of the 53-year-old specialist, with whom and his staff a four-year contract will be signed. This is the first post as coach of the country's main team in his career. Yalçın became the 48th coach in the team's history, replacing the Italian Vincenzo Montella in the post.

Playing and coaching career

Yalçın began his professional career at Istanbul's Beşiktaş, and over the course of his playing career he played for all four of Turkey's biggest clubs — Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray and Trabzonspor — becoming the first player with such an achievement. He made 37 appearances for the national team and scored five goals, taking part in the European Championships of 1996 and 2000. As a coach, he worked with Gaziantepspor, Sivasspor, Kayserispor, Eskişehirspor, Konyaspor, Alanyaspor, Yeni Malatyaspor and Antalyaspor. In the 2020/21 season he led Beşiktaş to a double — victories in the championship and the Turkish Cup — becoming the first person in the club's history to win the championship title both as a player and as a coach.

Historical context

Over its 103-year history, the Turkey national team has played 658 matches under 47 coaches — 26 Turkish and 21 foreign. Yalçın will become the 27th Turkish specialist at the head of the team. Among the foreign coaches there were four Hungarians and four Italians, three Englishmen and three Yugoslavs, two Romanians and two Germans, as well as one Scotsman, one Irishman and one Dutchman. The record holder for the number of matches and victories remains Fatih Terim: under him the team played 135 games (1990–2017) and won 70 victories, including one awarded. Several coaches — Ali Sami Yen (1923), Gündüz Kılıç (1954), Şerif Görcay (1962), Şükrü Gülesin (1969), Nicolae Petrescu (1971) and Ünal Karaman (2004) — led the team in only one match. Major successes were achieved by Terim (the first qualification for Euro 1996 and the Euro 2008 semi-final), Mustafa Denizli (the Euro 2000 quarter-final) and Şenol Güneş, who returned the team to the 2002 World Cup after a 48-year break — there Turkey took third place, and then also finished third at the Confederations Cup. Güneş began his second spell in 2019, but left after failures at Euro 2020 and in the 2022 World Cup qualifying.

The end of the Montella era

Vincenzo Montella took charge of the national team in 2023, replacing Stefan Kuntz, and achieved notable results at the start: an away victory over Croatia, the Euro 2024 quarter-final, qualification for the 2026 World Cup and the team's first-ever promotion to the top division of the UEFA Nations League. However, at the 2026 World Cup itself Turkey failed to get out of the group, and then lost its first four matches in League A of the Nations League. These results led the TFF to part ways with Montella and hand the team over to Yalçın.