Necati Ateş

Necati Ateş — Biography

Necati Ateş is a former forward who was part of Galatasaray's 2005-06 and 2011-12 league titles and played for the Turkey side that took third place at the 2003 Confederations Cup. After retiring he worked on coaching staffs, including as assistant coach at Panathinaikos, and in recent years he has been in the news as a television pundit and for his comments about Galatasaray transfers.

He spent part of his childhood in Germany and returned to İzmir with his family at 14. He came through Narlıdere Esnafspor and Altay, and scored 19 goals in 25 league matches in the season Altay dropped to the 1. Lig. In 2001-02 he joined Adanaspor; he scored 17 goals in his first season as the team reached the Süper Lig, finished second in the Süper Lig scoring chart with 18 goals in his first top-flight season, and moved to Galatasaray in the winter break of 2003-04. There he won the 2004-05 Turkish Cup and the 2005-06 league; he scored his first national-team goal against Albania in March 2005.

In 2007 a dispute with coach Karl-Heinz Feldkamp left him out of the squad and he was loaned to Ankaraspor and Istanbul BB, and in 2008-09 he scored once in 35 league matches for Real Sociedad. After leaving Galatasaray he became Antalyaspor's all-time top scorer with 30 goals and reached 100 Süper Lig goals in August 2010. He returned to Galatasaray in February 2012 and won the league that season, then played for Eskişehirspor, İstanbul Başakşehir, Osmanlıspor and Kayseri Erciyesspor.