He started his next career as the assistant coach to
German Jupp Derwall and served three years in this position at Galatasaray. In
1987, he took over his master’s position as coach. For the same season, Denizli was appointed head coach of the Turkish national football team. In the season
1988-1989, he reached the semi-finals of the
UEFA Champions League with Galatasaray, but the road to the final was blocked by
Steaua Bucuresti.
For the season
1989-1990, Denizli signed a contract with the German second league side
Alemannia Aachen. Denizli had installed a new type of attacking football for the German club but he left from this club due to
Alemannia Aachen was faced with relegation to third league. Returned back to Turkey after one season, he was responsible for Galatasaray again. The team won
Turkish Cup under his management in
1991-1992 and played in the quarter finals of the
Cup Winners Cup. From
1992 to
1995, he coached Kocaelispor and then he was appointed the second time head coach for the national team, he served until
2000. At the
2000 European Football Championship, Turkey played quarter finals with him, first time ever in the country’s history.
In
2000, Fenerbahçe offered him a position, and at the end of the season
2000-2001, Fenerbahçe won the league championship title after 5 years again. Denizli is the first Turkish coach of Fenerbahçe ever to win the league championship, but he enjoyed a rather poor
Champions League run with defeats against
FC Barcelona and
Bayer Leverkusen. In 2002 the
Nigerian national football team wanted to sign Denizli for their
2002 World Cup campaign but due to several problems it was canceld. He then transferred to Vestel Manisaspor.
In
2004, Denizli received several offers from
Japan and
South-Korea, but he chose to use his knowledge for
Iran to coach the
premier league champion
Pas Tehran. Denizli made a run for the league title but became only second in the league. There were rumours that Denizli would be the coach of the
Iran national football team to lead it to a successful
2006 World Cup. He also reached the quarterfinals of the
AFC Champions League with Pas, where he was knocked out 4-4 on aggregate by
Al Ain. Denizli said he was going to leave Pas and headback for Turkey, although he had an option to sign a contract in
Dubai. It was said that Mustafa Denizli would take over the Iranian national team after
Branko Ivankovic failed to make an impression on the world stage, but the
Iranian Amir Ghalenoei was chosen over him. In August 2006, Denizli was hired as the manager of the Iranian club,
Persepolis F.C., after
Arie Haan was fired. He resigned on
June 3, 2007 after an unsuccesful season with
Persepolis in which he failed in the
Hazfi Cup with an embarrassing 4-1 defeat to
Sepahan and more importantly the
IPL in which his immensely talented team only managed a 3rd place finish.
Denizli has recently announced he is very interested in becoming Iran National football team manager, providing he can reach agreements with the IRIFF.
http://www.iranproleague.net/news/Morenews.cfm?News=3573
rss feed