Hamza Hamzaoğlu

Hamza Hamzaoğlu — Biography

Hamza Hamzaoğlu was born on 15 January 1970 in Komotini, Greece, to an ethnic Turkish family; at seven he fled with his family to Turkey one winter night, crossing the Meriç River by boat, and after years without papers his father took the surname Hamzaoğlu, formed from his own first name. Growing up in İzmir, he came through Altay's youth ranks before turning professional at İzmirspor, where he won his first title, and moved to Galatasaray in 1991 despite interest from Fenerbahçe. Playing left-back and left-wing there, he won the Süper Lig in 1992-93 and 1993-94 and the Turkish Cup and Super Cup in 1993, later playing for İstanbulspor, Alanyaspor, Konyaspor and Beylerbeyi. He began managing with Konyaspor in 2004, led Akhisarspor to the 2011-12 TFF First League title, and served as Fatih Terim's national-team assistant around the same time. Appointed Galatasaray's head coach in December 2014, he became the first person to win titles there as both player and manager, taking it to its 20th league title, and was named Turkish Manager of the Year in 2015. He went on to manage Bursaspor, Osmanlıspor, Antalyaspor and Gençlerbirliği, more recently assisting Terim at Saudi club Al Shabab, and was again linked with the Antalyaspor job in 2025-2026.