Serpil Hamdi Tüzün

Serpil Hamdi Tüzün — Biography

Serpil Hamdi Tüzün is best known in Turkish football as a coach who develops young players. Through the Özkaynak Düzeni ("own-resources system") he built at Beşiktaş he brought many players into the first team and the national side, and in 1992 he won gold at the European Under-18 Championship with Turkey's youth team.

He started in football at Bağlarbaşı Kulübü, founded by his father in 1953, and played there for 15 years. In the 1960s he went to the Netherlands for an internship at Ajax, where he worked with Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens and Ștefan Kovács, and he scouted the Juventus and Derby County European Cup semi-final of 1972-73 with a written report. Back in Turkey he was taken on at Beşiktaş by Gündüz Tekin Onay. Ziya Doğan, Rıza Çalımbay, Metin Tekin, Ali Gültiken, Feyyaz Uçar and Sergen Yalçın were among his pupils, and Beşiktaş won the league after a 15-year gap under his teaching. Okan Buruk, Emre Belözoğlu, Selçuk İnan and Fatih Tekke are among those he sent on to the national team.

He managed Antalyaspor, Sivasspor and Beşiktaş, taking charge of Beşiktaş's senior side in 1979-80, and his application to the federation led to the founding of the PAF League. With Turkey's youth team he won European gold in 1992 and silver in 1993, and he also coached young players in Azerbaijan. He often said he disliked the word "altyapı" (youth academy), arguing that the work is about people. The principles of his system are a good person, a good student and a good footballer, set out in his book Futbolda Özkaynak Düzeni.