Hikmet Karaman (born March 9, 1960) is a UEFA pro licensed Turkish football manager.[1] He is the current head coach of Moldovan Super Liga club Zimbru Chișinău.

Hikmet Karaman
Karaman in 2012
Personal information
Date of birth (1960-03-09) March 9, 1960 (age 64)
Place of birth Tirebolu, Giresun, Turkey
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Team information
Current team
Zimbru Chișinău (head coach)
Managerial career
Years Team
1998 Zeytinburnuspor
1998–1999 Erzurumspor
1999 Çaykur Rizespor
1999–2000 Adanaspor
2000–2003 Kocaelispor
2003–2004 Çaykur Rizespor
2004–2005 Kayserispor
2006 Ankaragücü
2006 Malatyaspor
2006–2007 Ankaragücü
2007–2008 Ankaraspor
2008 Antalyaspor
2009 Ankaragücü
2010–2011 Manisaspor
2012–2013 Gaziantepspor
2013 Bursaspor
2013–2014 Kayseri Erciyesspor
2014–2017 Çaykur Rizespor
2018 Alanyaspor
2018–2019 Kayserispor
2020 Yeni Malatyaspor
2021 Ankaragücü
2021–2022 Kayserispor
2024 Adana Demirspor
2024– Zimbru Chișinău

In the beginning of his coaching career, Hikmet Karaman worked as an assistant coach for managers like Reinhard Saftig and Mustafa Denizli in Galatasaray and Kocaelispor, as well as Holger Osieck in both Kocaelispor and Fenerbahçe. As a head coach he previously worked for clubs, such as, Kocaelispor, Zeytinburnuspor, Erzurumspor, Çaykur Rizespor, Adanaspor, Kayserispor, MKE Ankaragücü, Ankaraspor, Antalyaspor, Manisaspor, and Gaziantepspor, respectively. During his career he has won the Turkish Cup with Kocaelispor and the TFF 1. Lig with Çaykur Rizespor and Antalyaspor.

Biography

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Professional career and education

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He was born in Tirebolu, Giresun, Turkey[2] on March 9, 1960. He holds a UEFA Pro-License and can speak German at advanced level and English at an elementary level. Hikmet Karaman started his Football career in the junior category of Kocaelispor; as a striker first, then as a midfielder, and finally as a left-back. While studying in Berlin, Germany, he played at Rot-Weiß football club. After Rot-Weiß, he played for Normania 08 club in Germany. Then he served as a trainer-player for Berlin Turkspor 1965, where they won the championships of A Liga, Landes Liga, and raised the team to the German third division. Hikmet Karaman received his C, B and A licenses at the Köln Hennef Sportschule. His course lecturers were Bernt Stöber, Holger Osieck, Rute Muller and Berti Vogts. Currently, Hikmet Karaman holds a UEFA pro-license.

1994–2001

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In 1994, Hikmet Karaman returned to Turkey and worked for Kocaelispor as assistant coach, together with Reinhard Saftig. In 1995–1996, he was passed to Galatasaray together with Reinhard Saftig, as an assistant manager. That year, Galatasaray played against IFK Göteborg, Manchester United and Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League. In the 1997–1998 season, he came back to Kocaelispor and worked as the assistant for Mustafa Denizli, the former coach of Turkey national team, Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş. Later in 1998, Hikmet Karaman worked with Holger Osieck and won the Turkish Cup. In 1999, he left Kocaelispor and started his career as head coach with Zeytinburnuspor. He stayed there half a season and then moved to Erzurumspor in Turkish Super League. Again only spending half a season there, in 1999, Hikmet Karaman took over Adanaspor. He took the team that was last and finished them within the first eight. He stayed in Adanaspor for two years, until 2001.

2001–2004

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In 2001, Hikmet Karaman came back to Kocaelispor, who had only gotten 9 points in 16 games, and completed the season with 41 points. To add to his success, he defeated Galatasaray, coached by Mircea Lucescu, with a score of 3–2 in Istanbul and won the next year's Turkish Cup by defeating another Istanbul giant, Beşiktaş, coached by Christoph Daum with even a more jaw-dropping score of 4–0 in the final. This victory had entitled his team to join the UEFA Cup. Furthermore, during the preparatory camp for this season, his team defeated Arsenal coached by Arsène Wenger with a remarkable score of 4–1. After spending two years in Kocaelispor, Hikmet Karaman worked for Çaykur Rizespor and left this job in February 2004 after a loss to Denizlispor at home.

2004–2010

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In the same year, Hikmet Karaman started coaching Kayserispor. He came to the job facing a challenging problem. Kayserispor had only been able to accumulate 2 points in the first 7 weeks of the season before his arrival. He successfully laid the foundations of today's Kayserispor by getting only 4 losses in 17 games in the second half. Thus, he was able to save Kayserispor from relegation. In the summer of 2006, he signed with MKE Ankaragücü again in the Turkish Super League. The following season, he left MKE Ankaragücü for Ankaraspor. Hikmet Karaman helped Ankaraspor, which had only received 3 points in 9 games with no wins, stay in the Super League at the end of the season. In 2008, Hikmet Karaman started managing Antalyaspor in the second division and led the team to a promotion. In the 2009–2010 season, Hikmet Karaman came back to MKE Ankaragücü towards the end of the season and helped the team stay in the Super League, with five wins, in spite of the negative expectations. In 2010, he took over Manisaspor with 0 points after four games, and finished the season with 41 points with, even, some victories against The Big Three.

2012–

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In the 2012–13 season, Hikmet Karaman came to Gaziantepspor, replacing Abdullah Ercan. On February 4, 2013, Hikmet Karaman terminated his contract with Gaziantepspor and signed with Bursaspor two days later. After defeat of 0–3 at home to FK Vojvodina in UEFA Europa League second qualifying round, he was dismissed from Bursaspor, just before beginning of Turkish Super League 2013–14 season.[3] On 11 December 2014, he was appointed as the manager of Çaykur Rizespor after Mehmet Özdilek. During the 2014-2015 season, he coached Rizespor for 22 matches and finished 14th in the league. He was kept as the manager of Rizespor in the following three seasons, coaching the team for 128 matches until he parted ways with the club by mutual agreement in 2017.[4]

On 18 October 2024, the Moldovan Super Liga club Zimbru Chisinau announced that they had reached an agreement with Karaman for the head coach position.[5]

Honours

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Kocaelispor

Managerial statistics

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As of 2 March 2019
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team Nat From To Record
G W D L Win %
Zeytinburnuspor   7 May 1998 1 July 1998 2 0 1 1 000.00
Erzurumspor   1 July 1998 22 April 1999 34 11 8 15 032.35
Çaykur Rizespor   22 April 1999 1 December 1999 21 14 1 6 066.67
Adanaspor   1 December 1999 8 December 2000 41 15 9 17 036.59
Kocaelispor   8 December 2000 19 February 2003 84 33 14 37 039.29
Çaykur Rizespor   19 February 2003 1 October 2004 61 30 8 23 049.18
Kayserispor   1 October 2004 30 June 2005 31 10 9 12 032.26
Ankaragücü   10 February 2006 30 June 2006 17 6 3 8 035.29
Malatyaspor   30 June 2006 15 September 2006 4 2 1 1 050.00
Ankaragücü   15 September 2006 17 July 2007 34 15 6 13 044.12
Ankaraspor   17 July 2007 4 March 2008 20 7 7 6 035.00
Antalyaspor   31 March 2008 14 August 2008 7 3 3 1 042.86
Ankaragücü   24 March 2009 12 November 2009 22 9 4 9 040.91
Manisaspor   14 September 2010 30 June 2011 35 14 4 17 040.00
Gaziantepspor   27 January 2012 4 February 2013 36 16 7 13 044.44
Bursaspor   6 February 2013 13 August 2013 17 8 4 5 047.06
Kayseri Erciyesspor   23 December 2013 31 May 2014 19 7 4 8 036.84
Çaykur Rizespor   14 December 2014 5 October 2017 128 50 28 50 039.06
Alanyaspor   3 January 2018 26 February 2018 6 1 0 5 016.67
Kayserispor   6 December 2018 44 18 11 15 040.91
Total 663 269 132 262 040.57

References

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  1. ^ "Türkiye'deki ilk UEFA Pro-Lisans Güncelleme kursu başladı". Turkish Football Association. December 25, 2009. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  2. ^ "Hikmet Karaman" (in Turkish). hikmetkaraman.com. January 1, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  3. ^ "Bursaspor sack coach Hikmet Karaman". turkeyfootball.blogspot.mk. August 10, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  4. ^ "Hikmet Karaman ile yollar ayrıldı!". Haber7 (in Turkish). Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  5. ^ "HIKMET KARAMAN, NOUL ANTRENOR AL F.C. ZIMBRU CHIȘINĂU" (in Romanian). FC Zimbru. October 18, 2024. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
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