Vedat Uysal

Vedat Uysal — Biography

Vedat Uysal is a former footballer and coach, best remembered for leading Turkey's national beach soccer team into Europe's top eight in 2010. He started out in the Galatasaray youth side and stopped playing in the second half of the 1990s.

As a player he first turned out for Mersin İdman Yurdu, who were relegated from the league but still reached the Turkish Cup final. After two seasons at Vefa he joined Eskişehirspor and stayed four years; during military service he played three times for the Turkish army team. With Eskişehirspor he lost the 1987 cup final to Gençlerbirliği, yet that year the club beat Beşiktaş on penalties to take the Prime Minister's Cup. In 1989-90 he went on loan from Sakaryaspor to Fenerbahçe, finishing second in the league and winning the Presidential Cup. He then spent a year and a half at Karşıyaka and four and a half seasons back at Sakaryaspor, before a half season at Bornova Yeşilovaspor in December 1996, after which he retired.

His coaching work began with the Turkish Football Federation as the Sakarya regional technical officer (2002-2006), and in 2006-07 he took Hendekspor to the Sakarya amateur title. From 2007 to 2010 he ran the beach soccer national team: third at the 2008 Challenge Cup in Netanya, then champions at the July 2010 Challenge Cup in the Netherlands after beating the hosts 5-4 in the final. In August 2010, in the qualifiers held in Lisbon, a 4-3 final win over France, the 2005 world champions, lifted the team to the top division. He left the post on November 23, 2010.