İsmail Atalan

İsmail Atalan — Biography

İsmail Atalan was born on 1 April 1980. At the age of five he moved with his mother and siblings from Turkey to Dülmen in Germany. He started coaching in July 2008 as a player-coach with the reserve side of 1. FC Gievenbeck, continued in the same role at SV Davaria Davensberg from 2010, and stopped playing in 2012 when he moved to SC Roland Beckum to concentrate on coaching.

He took over fourth-division Sportfreunde Lotte midway through 2014-15 and won the Westphalian cup, earning a place in the German Cup, where they lost 3-0 to Bayer Leverkusen in the first round. In 2015-16 Lotte won their Regionalliga group and, after play-offs against Waldhof Mannheim, were promoted to the 3. Liga. The next season they reached the last 16 of the German Cup before losing to Borussia Dortmund, and Atalan was named 3. Liga manager of the season for 2016-17.

On 11 July 2017 he signed a contract with 2. Bundesliga side VfL Bochum running to 2019, but left on 9 October 2017. He returned to Lotte in April 2019, moved to Hallescher FC in February 2020. He became assistant coach at Alanyaspor in April 2023, coached Austria's Kapfenberger SV from May 2024 to July 2025, and took charge of Wolfsberger AC in November 2025.