Engin Özdemir

Engin Özdemir — Biography

Engin Özdemir was born on 1 October 1968 in Sivas. He started playing in Germany as a boy with SV 07 Raunheim and moved to Mainz 05 about nine years later. In two years there he made 23 appearances and scored 11 goals, helping the side win promotion to the 2. Bundesliga for 1988-89. He then joined Türkgücü München, scoring 11 times in 12 games before leaving in November 1992.

A right midfielder and winger, Özdemir is best remembered in Turkey for his time at Gençlerbirliği, with whom he scored in the 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup, and he later played in the 1997 Intertoto Cup for İstanbulspor. He was noted for his technical play in midfield and his composed penalties. He played four times for Turkey's U-16 side and was called up to the senior national team four times, earning caps in friendlies against Azerbaijan on 9 April 1996 and Ukraine on 1 May 1996.

After playing, he worked in Germany as player-coach of SV Dersim Rüsselsheim and FV Biebrich and as a youth coach at TSG 1846 Mainz-Kastel. In Turkey he coached the Yeni Malatyaspor youth team and then served as assistant to the first-team manager, was assistant coach at Eskişehirspor in 2018-19, and became manager of the TFF 3. Lig club Çatalcaspor in January 2021. He works as technical manager at Atko Grup Pendikspor. He is the father of the YouTuber CaniSports.