Nihat Akbay

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nihat Akbay
Personnel
birthday January 1, 1945
place of birth Istanbul ,  Turkey
date of death March 24, 2020
Place of death Istanbul ,  Turkey
size 180 cm
position goal
Juniors
Years station
until 1961 Beykozspor
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1961-1968 Beykozspor 155 (0)
1968-1988 Galatasaray Istanbul 115 (0)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1965-1968 Turkey U-21 7 (0)
1964-1976 Turkey 8 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Nihat Akbay (born January 1, 1945 in Istanbul ; † March 24, 2020 there ) was a Turkish football goalkeeper . Through his many years of work for Galatasaray Istanbul , he is strongly associated with this association. On fan and club pages he is seen as one of the most important players in club history. After the departure of the Galatasaray legend Yasin Özdenak , he took over the captain's armband in 1976 and wore it until he left.

Player career

Beykozspor

Akbay began with club football in the youth department of the Istanbul club Beykozspor . At this club he was accepted into the professional team in 1961 as a sixteen-year-old and replaced the much more experienced Sıtkı Taşer from December 1961 . He made his professional debut on December 2, 1961 against Adana Demirspor in the Milli Lig , the top Turkish league. In his second season, Akbay was left behind against Taşer, but still made 15 league appearances. It was not until the 1963/64 season that Akbay finally asserted himself as a regular goalkeeper and retained this position until he left this club. With his club Akbay always played against relegation from the summer of 1963. After relegation was achieved in the 1963/64 and 1964/65 seasons and thus relegation could be averted, relegation was missed in the 1965/66 season. So the club rose as a founding member of the Milli Lig, after eight years of membership in the first division in the 2nd Futbol Ligi . Although Akbay had developed into one of the most promising young goalkeepers in recent seasons and was also interesting for the Turkish national team , he did not leave Beykozspor after relegation and went to the second division with the club. In this league, Akbay lost his position in goal to Taşer and played twelve league games. His club finished the league behind Mersin İdman Yurdu in second place and missed the direct return. In the second second division season Akbay increased his stakes, but could not assert himself as a regular goalkeeper. His club unexpectedly played against relegation this season and ended the season in 14th place in the table.

Galatasaray Istanbul

In the summer of 1967 left the Turkish giants Galatasaray with Turgay Şeren , Bülent Gürbüz and Yervant Balcı all three goalkeepers the club. While Şeren ended his career, the 36-year-old Gürbüz moved to the second division Boluspor and Balcı to the second division Samsunspor . For the new season, the club signed not only the Yugoslav goalkeeper Tatomir Radunović, but also the two young goalkeepers Yasin Özdenak and Faruk Özceylan . The head coach at the time chose the 19-year-old Özdenak as the goalkeeper. This completed by far the most competitive games for his team. In the summer Radunović and Özceylan were given to other clubs and Akbay and the veteran Varol Ürkmez committed instead . In addition, a new coach was hired with Tomislav Kaloperović . He left last season's goalkeeper Özdenak on the bench and handed over his position to Akbay. As his replacement, Ürkmez advanced, who represented Akbay in six games later in the season. Under coach Kaloperović the hoped-for Turkish championship succeeded , which Akbay could win this title for the first time. The team also won the President's Cup . In the new season, the team experienced a very turbulent season, in which the coach and some players had several controversies. Akbays team ended the season without a title; The only bright spot was reaching the quarter-finals in the European Cup in 1969/70 . At times Akbay lost his regular place to Özdenak, but still completed more league games than this.

After the unsuccessful and unsettled last season, the club's management decided at the end of the season to carry out a squad revision. To this end, they separated from Kaloperović and instead agreed with the British coach Brian Birch . In addition, the club signed young players such as Metin Kurt , Tuncay Temeller and Aydın Güleş . The new coach formed a powerful squad with the relatively young team that dominated Turkish football for the next five years. Birch also decided to let Özdenak play as a regular goalkeeper from now on. With this new squad constellation, the team won the Turkish football championship at the end of the 1970/71 season . Akbay was mostly on the bench and represented Özdenak in four league games. The team won the championship again in the following two seasons , and even the double in the 1972/73 season , making it the first team in Turkish football history to win the championship of the first league three times in a row . Akbay played about half of the league games in the 1971/72 season. In the 1972/73 season he was left behind again against Özdenak. The following two years were rather disappointing for the team and Akbay. The season 1973/74 ended the team behind expectations, beaten on the 5th place in the table and 1974/75 the club was runner-up with five points difference to the champions Fenerbahçe Istanbul . Akbay completed no league game in the 1973/74 season and only one in the 1974/75 season. It was not until the 1975/76 season that both Galatasaray and Akbay increased. In the summer of 1976 they were Turkish Cup winners , but finished the league in third place in the table. Akbay played 13 league and four cup games this season.

In the summer of 1976, long-time goalkeeper Özdenak moved to New York Cosmos at Galatasaray . The club tried the coming season only with Akbay and his two representatives Yılmaz Pamuk and Doğan Özdenak to exist. But after these did not show satisfactory performance from the point of view of the coaching staff, the Yugoslav goalkeeper Boško Kajganić and the Turkish goalkeeper Bahattin Demircan were committed in the summer of 1977 . After Kajganić had a fatal accident in a traffic accident near Silivri in November 1977 , the season with Akbay and Demircan was brought to an end. As a souvenir, Akbay wore Kajganić's jersey for a long time after the death and announced the end of his career after the season. Galatasaray then engaged Eser Özaltındere as Akbay's successor in the summer of 1978 .

Akbay himself ended his career with a scheduled farewell game on August 5, 1978, in which Galatasaray and Trabzonspor met.

National team

Akbay was nominated for the first time in the squad of the Turkish national team during his time at Beykozspor in a friendly against Tunisia . In this game Akbay was only on the bench. It was only in his next nomination, which followed in December 1964, that he made his international debut in a friendly against the Bulgarian national team .

From the next year Akbay also played for the Turkish U-21 national team . After Akbay was occasionally nominated until 1969, he subsequently received no nominations for a long time. It was not until 1976 that he was called back to the national team by national coach Coşkun Özarı .

His last international match was on October 13, 1976 against the Irish national team .

Honor

successes

With Galatasaray Istanbul

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b urbanizma.com: "Efsane Kaleciler - Nihat Akbay" ( Memento from April 7, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )
  2. ↑ a b galatasaray.org: "Nihat Akbay Türk Telekom Arena'daydı" ( Memento from April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on April 7, 2014)
  3. ↑ May 1, 1976, Milliyet, p. 11.
  4. ↑ May 10, 1976, Milliyet, p. 11.
  5. ↑ May 26, 1969, Milliyet, p. 12.
  6. ↑ mackolik.com: Match report Galatasaray - Trabzonspor from August 5, 1978 ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed April 7, 2014) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mackolik.com
personal data
SURNAME Akbay, Nihat
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Istanbul , Turkey
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 2020
Place of death Istanbul , Turkey