Rıza Çalımbay

Rıza Çalımbay began his football career in the academy of Beşiktaş, one of the biggest clubs in Turkey. He was promoted to the A team squad in the 1980–81 season, where he played as a midfielder on the right side. However, he also proved to be a versatile player who could play in other positions such as central midfield and right-back. In his 16 seasons with Beşiktaş A Team, he played 494 league matches and scored a total of 41 goals. He received the title of the Beşiktaş player with the most appearances in the history of the 1st League. Throughout his football career, he only played for Beşiktaş and served as captain for many years. During his time at Beşiktaş, Çalımbay won 6 leagues, 3 Turkish Cups, 4 Presidential Cups, 1 Prime Minister's Cup, and 6 Turkish Sports Writers' Association Cups. After 16 seasons, he retired from active football in July 1996 with a jubilee farewell match.

Rıza Çalımbay played for the national team 37 times and also played for the Under-21 (Ümit) team 8 times and the Youth (Genç) team 52 times. His sole senior international goal came on 13 November 1991, when he converted a penalty in a match against Ireland, which was lost 3–1. Additionally, in 1991 he was selected to play for a World Team. The UNICEF charity match against the German national team was played in Munich to raise funds for children around the world.

Early career

After retiring from football, Rıza Çalımbay pursued a career in coaching and completed manager courses in England. He then served as an assistant manager for Christoph Daum at Beşiktaş in 2001 but resigned shortly after to take over as the manager of Göztepe, Denizlispor, and Çaykur Rizespor. At Denizlispor, he led the team to the latter stages of the 2002–03 UEFA Cup season, where they eliminated teams such as Sparta Prague and Olympique Lyonnais. However, their UEFA Cup dreams were crushed by the Porto side of José Mourinho in an 8–3 aggregate loss. In the 2004–05 season, Çalımbay returned to Beşiktaş as manager after Vicente Del Bosque was sacked. Despite a rough start to the season with bad results and a demotivated squad, Çalımbay helped turn the team's fortunes around. He reverted to the team's traditional 3–5–2 formation and implemented a playing style that brought results such as a 4–3 win over rivals Fenerbahçe at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium. However, the following season was not as successful, and Çalımbay resigned after a 0–0 draw against Kayserispor in the 9th week of the season. He then coached Ankaraspor for a brief period before returning to Çaykur Rizespor for a 1.5 year contract. Despite options to coach abroad in Iran and Germany, Çalımbay chose to continue his tenure with Çaykur Rizespor. He later coached Eskişehirspor, Sivasspor, Mersin İdmanyurdu, and Kasımpaşa. On 10 October 2016, Çalımbay signed a two-year contract with…

Player

As of 7 May 2017

Club

International

Manager

As of 23 December 2024