Galatasaray set to appoint Denizli as new manager

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish champions Galatasaray named Mustafa Denizli, the only coach to win the domestic league with three different clubs, as their new manager on Monday.

Club chairman Dursun Ozbek made the announcement at a joint news conference after a meeting with Denizli at the club’s stadium in Istanbul where the pair agreed he would take charge of the team.

“It’s a great honour to be here. A difficult and challenging task is waiting for me now,” said Denizli, the only coach to win the domestic league with three different clubs.

“I am excited to be back with the only club for which I would risk my successes, my reputation.”

Details regarding the agreement, which Ozbek said will be signed in a couple of days, were not revealed.

Denizli, 66, managed the Turkish national team for four years and reached the quarter-finals of the European championship in 2000.

He has won three domestic league titles with Istanbul’s three big rivals — Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas. His previous spell in charge of Galatasaray was in the early 1990s.

Last week, Galatasaray parted ways with coach Hamza Hamzaoglu, less than a year after he took charge of the side, following a mediocre start to the season.

Galatasaray are seven points behind league leaders Besiktas in third place in the standings after 12 games and third in Champions League Group C on four points from as many matches.

Denizli said he will not travel to Madrid for the team’s away game against Atletico on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Daren Butler/Sudipto Ganguly/Rex Gowar)