Rahim Zafer
Rahim Zafer ( born January 25, 1971 in Sakarya ) is a former Turkish football player and current football coach. Due to his longstanding involvement for Sakaryaspor, Gençlerbirliği Ankara and Istanbul Beşiktaş he is associated with these clubs. With the Turkish national team, he participated in the 1996 European Championships and came during this tournament to two stakes. With 342 Erstligaeinsätzen he is one of the players with the most stakes in the Turkish Süper Lig
- 4.1 As a player
Playing career
Association
Zafer began his club football career with the well-known for its good youth development club Sakaryaspor province. He also took the opportunity under the nationally known youth coach Ekrem Karaberberoğlu to train. This formed Zafer over the years into a classic defender. This position he played almost to end of his career. At this time Sakaryaspor developed an incubator for talent. So here several players like Recep Çetin, Engin İpekoğlu, Oğuz Çetin, Aykut Kocaman, Sinan Turhan, Özcan Kızıltan, Turhan Sofuoglu, İlker Yağcıoğlu, Hakan Şükür were discovered, which should all be later to important players in the Turkish football. Thus at second division Zafer was incorporated in 1986 in the cadre of professional team and came to his first stakes a little later. In his first season one rose as a master of TFF 1 Lig on in the Süper Lig.
Risen to the highest Turkish league, the club established in the mid- table segment and finished end of the season the 11 place in the table. The Turkish Football Cup was achieved complete surprise for the first time in club history the final. The cup final they won against Samsunspor by 2-0 on home turf and a 1-1 away. It was the first Cup win in club history. Zafer, the Hakan Şükür ( both 16 years old) was one of the youngest players in the squad, came in the 1987/88 season to four league and two cup inserts. Over the next two seasons received Zafer - favored by the departure of several key players - with the passage of time more and more stakes. After Sakaryaspor the season 1989/90 ended on the last place, the club rose after three years Erstligazugehörigkeit again in the second ligament
After relegation to the second Lig for the summer of 1990 Sakaryaspor could hold only a few players in the squad. Zafer joined the Hauptstadterstligisten Gençlerbirliği Ankara. Gençlerbirliği had developed since the club presidency of İlhan Cavcav to a club who trained young talented players to seasoned professionals and they then gave to a high transfer fee to richer clubs. In this environment, it was possible Zafer quickly to establish itself as an important player in the squad. After playing the first season with 20 league Gençlerbirliği with inserts, he conquered in the second season a regular place and rose a little later to become one of the most significant contributors. So he made the bigger clubs in the Turkish 1st Lig attention. In the summer of 1993 Zafer took with the Turkish Olympic team participated in the Mediterranean Games and won here with his team the gold medal. Thanks to this success, he made all the more attention. Despite the headhunting maneuvers of several Premier League clubs Zafer got from his club no release. In the 1993/94 season the club reached the 7th place in the table the best Erstligaplatzierung for about 25 years. In the following season they reached the 5th place in the table, the second best Erstligaplatzierung the club's history. Zafer was the chief of defense, contributed significantly to the club success and established herself in the Turkish national team.
After Zafer also played the season 1995/96 at Gençlerbirliği, he was nominated by coach Fatih Terim in the national squad for the 1996 European Championships. Gençlerbirliği saw May 1996 as the right time Zafer profitably deliver and told the players for a reasonable transfer fee to want to leave. At the Istanbul club Beşiktaş tradition of the former assistant coach of the national team, Rasim Kara was set as the coach for the new season. Kara had called for as a change of the conditions of the obligation Zafers. So responded the club's management hired the defender against a transfer fee of 150 million Turkish lira. Changed to Beşiktaş to Zafer immediately established as a regular in the team. During the season they supplied with Galatasaray in a duel to the Turkish championship and had to settle for the end of the season with the Turkish runner. In the UEFA Cup they reached the knockout stages, and thus achieved the best performance to date, the club's history in this competition. In addition, they won the end of season the Prime Minister Cup. The 1997/98 season they finished a distant second to the sixth place in the table. The Turkish Football Cup but could prevail in the final against Turkish champions Galatasaray two times itself. After the Turkish Cup victory they met again in the Turkish Super Cup Galatasaray and could also look forward to prevail against the reigning champions. The following season provided Zafer with his team once again going head-to -head race with Galatasaray, but missed with a point of difference and significantly worse goal difference the championship again and again had to settle for the runner. The following season it was behind Galatasaray vice-champion. For the 2001/ 02 season, the Italian coach Nevio Scala became the coach of Beşiktaş. Under this coach Zafer came only sporadically stakes. Opposite end of the season Scala was replaced by Christoph Daum. Daum announced for the coming season to a revision in the Squad and put more seasoned players on the sales list, including Zafer.
In 2000 he transferred within the League newly promoted Diyarbakirspor. After just one season, he moved again and was hired by his old club, the second division Sakaryaspor on. There he played only the first round and moved to the second round for South Korean club Daegu FC. For this club played four years. For the spring of 2005 he returned to his home and hired the second division Adanaspor. He left this club at end of season and agreed for the coming season with Kirikkalespor. After he was active for Kirikkalespor until February 2006 he dissolved his contract and declared the end of his active football playing career.
National
Zafer started his national career in 1986 in the Turkish U-16 national team. With this, he qualified for the U -16 Football Championship in 1987. After qualifying, he also belonged to the tournament squad. Here we reached the top spot in Group A and met in the semifinals of the Italian U- 16th The game they lost 0-1 and had to play against the hosts France in the third-place match. This encounter is clearly lost with 0:3, reaching fourth place. Zafer played here in all encounters his team.
After the U-16 Zafer played two years for the Turkish U -18 and then a game of Turkish U-21 national team.
Zafer was in the squad of the Turkish Olympic team on the occasion of participation in the Mediterranean Games in 1993 by former U-21 national team coach Fatih Terim. The team reached the final and won the gold medal with a 2-0 victory against the Olympic team of Algeria. Zafer came in all games of his team to use.
Through its shown benefits Gençlerbirliği Ankara Zafer was nominated by now a national coach Ascended Terim as part of a test match against Romania for the cadres of the Turkish national team. In this game Zafer just sat on the bench. After this encounter, Zafer was nominated three more times and also sat in these games on the bench. His international debut he gave as part of a friendly game of 9 April 1996 against the Azerbaijan national team.
With the Turkish national team, he participated in the 1996 European Championships and came during this tournament to two stakes. After the European Championship coach Terim was replaced by Mustafa Denizli; under him was Zafer no more consideration.
Coaching career
After his playing career Zafer joined the coach specialist and worked as an assistant coach at Kastamonuspor, Usakspor and Polatlı Bugsasspor. For summer 2009, he worked at Kahramanmarasspor the first time as head coach. After that, he supervised several club the lower Turkish professional leagues.
Trivia
- Zafer settled in the 2010s with his family in the United States and settled in Dallas. Here he bought on the National Premier Soccer League club FC Dallas City.
Achievements
As a player
- With Sakaryaspor: Cup of TFF 1 Lig (1): 1986/87
- Promotion to the Süper Lig (1): 1986/87
- Turkish Cup Winner (1): 1987/88
- With Beşiktaş Istanbul Turkish runner (3): 1996/97 1998/99 1999/2000
- Turkish Cup Winner (1): 1997/98
- Turkish Super Cup ( 1): 1998
- Başbakanlık Kupası ( 1): 1997
- Turkish U-16 national team: Fourth in the U-16 European Championship: 1987
- With Olympic selection in Turkey: Gold medal at the Mediterranean Games ( 1): 1993
- Turkish national team: Participate in the European Championship ( 1): 1996