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Rıza Çalımbay

Rıza Çalımbay
Personal information
Full name Rıza Çalımbay
Date of birth (1963-02-02) 2 February 1963 (age 54)
Place of birth Sivas, Turkey
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 7 12 in)
Playing position Winger
Club information
Current team
Antalyaspor (manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1980–1996 Beşiktaş 494 (42)
National team
1980–1981 Turkey U18 6 (0)
1981–1984 Turkey U21 8 (0)
1981–1992 Turkey 51 (1)
Teams managed
2001–2002 Göztepe
2002–2003 Denizlispor
2003–2004 Ankaragücü
2004–2005 Rizespor
2005 Beşiktaş
2005–2007 Ankaraspor
2007 Rizespor
2008–2010 Eskişehirspor
2010–2013 Sivasspor
2013–2014 Rizespor
2014–2015 Mersin İdmanyurdu
2015–2016 Kasımpaşa
2016– Antalyaspor
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Rıza Çalımbay, (born 2 February 1963 in Sivas, Turkey) is a former Turkish international footballer, and a manager. He was one of the symbol names of Beşiktaş J.K. and was among the best players of his time. Because of his determination and hard work he was nicknamed Atom Ant (in Turkish, "Atom Karınca").

He started playing football in Beşiktaş academy. He debuted with the Beşiktaş first team in 1980–81 season. Until his retirement in 1996, he played only for Beşiktaş, and for the Turkish National Football Team, although he played in the UNICEF-world team against Germany and caught the eye of many clubs like Olympique Marseille but Çalımbay would not leave Beşiktaş. He played 494 league games for Beşiktaş and scored 41 goals. He is the most capped player for Beşiktaş. He was also the captain of the team. He also played 37 times for Turkey.

After retiring from football, Çalımbay took manager courses in England. In 2001, he became the assistant manager for Christoph Daum at Beşiktaş but after a short time he resigned, and became the manager of Göztepe, Denizlispor and Çaykur Rizespor. He was especially successful at Denizlispor, leading the team to latter stages in the UEFA Cup eliminating teams like Sparta Prague and the mighty Olympique Lyon side of Paul Le Guen. The FC Porto side of José Mourinho ended the UEFA Cup dreams of Denizlispor and Çalımbay after an 8–3 win on aggregate. In 2004/2005 season, he became the manager of Beşiktaş after Vicente Del Bosque was sacked. That season Beşiktaş was having really bad results and the squad was in a bad mood. But after Çalımbay took control the team started to perform really well. Çalımbay changed the system back to a 3–5–2 formation the usual formation and began playing good football he also picked a 4–3 win over rivals Fenerbahçe SK in the Fenerbahçe Stadium. However in the season 2005/2006, Beşiktaş was performing bad once again, Despite UEFA Cup wins against FC Vaduz and Malmö FF a 1–2 home defeat by Fenerbahçe SK took the coach into troubled waters. Çalımbay resigned in the 9th week after a 0–0 draw against Kayserispor. Jean Tigana became the manager of Beşiktaş after him. He then coached Ankaraspor but resigned after a few matches. Çalımbay signed a 1.5 year contract with again Çaykur Rizespor, although he had options to coach abroad in Iran and Germany but he chose Çaykur Rizespor. On 6 June 2008 he signed a 3 year deal with Eskişehirspor.


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