As a player, he scored 11 goals in 30 appearances for Turkey, and was selected for the Euro 1996 squad. He began his career playing for Fenerbahçe Youth but never played a professional game with the club and signed for Gaziantepspor. He spent nine years playing for Samsunspor during two spells, and helped the club to promotion to the Turkish top flight in 1991 and again in 1993 after relegation. He also played for Beşiktaş between 1994 and 2000. When he signed from Samsunspor to Beşiktaş in 1994, he was the most expensive signing in Turkish football, when Beşiktaş paid 70 Billion ₺, equivalent to around 3 Million $, at the time. For the time being, that amount of money was unprecedented in Turkish Football history. He played as an offensive midfielder and as a striker before joining Beşiktaş. A few years later, the then Beşiktaş coachJohn Benjamin Toshack used Sağlam as a central defender. He was quite successful in that position, too.
During his six years at Beşiktaş, he scored 103 goals in 167 games. After he was traded in exchange with defender Erman Güraçar from Samsunspor, he could not stop his tears at the airport. After first helping Samsunspor to promotion to the Süper Lig during his first spell as a player with the club, he took over the reins of manager at the end of three years as a player during his second spell at the club. He signed a two-year managerial contract. His first ever game as a manager saw Samsunspor lose 1–3 at home to Beşiktaş, and saw them win only two of their first 10 games, suffering a heavy 5–0 defeat to Malatyaspor. Sağlam was manager of Kayserispor for two seasons from the July 2005 to May 2007. Kayserispor were promoted to the Turkish to flight at the beginning of the 2004–05 season. It was their first season in the Süper Lig. In July 2007 Sağlam became the manager of Turkish giantsBeşiktaş. He guided them to a third-place finish in the League in the 2007–08 season, with a joint number of points with second placedFenerbahçe with 73 points, six behind champions Galatasaray.
Managerial career
Early career
In 2006, Sağlam was voted one of the top 20 most promising coaches by respected football magazine Champions.[3] In 2006, he won the now defunct Intertoto Cup, with Kayserispor of Turkey. He has previously managed two of the clubs he had played for, those being Samsunspor and Beşiktaş. On 16 May 2010, Bursaspor won the Super Lig after beating defending championsBeşiktaş 2–1 at home. They won the league by just one point above second placedFenerbahçe, although they had an 11-point gap over third placed Galatasaray. Bursaspor had the strongest strikeforce and the second strongest defence, of all teams in the league. It was manager Sağlam's first full season in charge having taken over in January 2009, and it is the first time he, and Bursaspor, won the league.[4]
After first helping Samsunspor to promotion to the Süper Lig during his first spell as a player with the club, he took over the reins of manager at the end of three years as a player during his second spell at the club. He signed a two-year managerial contract. His first ever game as a manager saw Samsunspor lose 1–3 at home to Beşiktaş, and saw them win only two of their first 10 games, suffering a heavy 5–0 defeat to Malatyaspor. However, by November 2003, Samsunspor's form rapidly improved and they impressively won against all of the "Istanbul big three", recording an impressive 0–4 away win at Beşiktaş, a 3–0 home win against Fenerbahçe, and 1–0 at home to Galatasaray. At the end of the 2003–04 season, they finished 7th in the table. The following season, 2004–05, was less successful and they finished in 12th position.
In July 2007 Sağlam became the manager of Turkish giantsBeşiktaş. He guided them to a third-place finish in the league in the 2007–08 season, with a joint number of points with second placedFenerbahçe with 73 points, six behind champions Galatasaray. Although domestically Beşiktaş had a good season, they became a part of football history when the team lost 8–0 away to Liverpool in the Champions League in November 2007.[5] The following seasonBeşiktaş won four of their first six games and drew the other two. However, he resigned on 7 October 2008. His last game being a 2–1 home victory against Hacettepe the previous day.
The following season, 2009–10, began successful and by the midpoint of the season, in December 2009; gameweek 17, the club were sitting in the top spot in the Süper Lig table. The first half of the season saw a 1–0 home victory against Istanbul giantsGalatasaray, and also a 2–3 win away at Beşiktaş. In late 2009, Sağlam was linked with the vacant Turkey managerial position after Terim'sresignation, but he refused to comment on the speculation. Guus Hiddink eventually took up the position. The latter part of the season saw a 6–0 win over mid–table Istanbul, the largest win in the league to date this season, and also a 2–3 away win against Fenerbahçe after winning from two goals down. Bursaspor again reached the quarter-finals of the Turkish Cup and again they lost on aggregate to Fenerbahçe, this time crashing out 4–3 due to an injury time winner from Fener. In April 2010 Bursa sat at the top of the table after being in the top three for the past few months. With eight games left to play Bursa were five points clear at the top.[6] After securing a win by coming from behind to win 2–1 against Antalyaspor, after having lost the previous week for the first time in eight league games, Sağlam was quoted as saying that:
"We (Bursaspor) are on the verge of becoming a great team, we had to win, even if it meant coming from behind to do so. That was the important thing."[7]
"After taking pole position in the league during the course of the season, we believed in our hearts that we could win the title. Despite losing the lead to Fenerbahçe we did not give up hope. We were always waiting to pounce if Fenerbahçe dropped points. Following in Trabzonspor's footsteps, we have brought success back to Anatolia, he added. We have taken this honour. Now we have an even bigger responsibility on our shoulders; representing our country in the UEFA Champions League. We'll try not to let those who supported us down. The whole of Bursa has made history."[4]
Of the recipe to Bursaspor's success he simply said: "We put together a good team and that was the key to our title success."[4] The beginning of the 2010-11 season was successful, with Bursa winning their first six league games and losing only twice during the first half of the season. Their continued success has forced some of the Turkish Press to reconsider the team as a serious title contender and not just a one-hit wonder, and they spent the majority of the league in either the first or second position. On March 29, 2011, Bursaspor and Saglam agreed to extend the contract with three years until the end of the 2014–15 season. However, Bursaspor finished third that season. After finishing the remaining of his seasons 8th and 4th, he signed a contract with Eskişehirspor.[8][9][10][11] On 5 January 2015, Sağlam resigned as Eskişehirspor manager.[12]
Past career
At the beginning of the season, Sağlam terminated his contract with Yeni Malatyaspor and signed a contract with Iranian side Tractor, a club based in Tabriz.
On 15 November 2019, Samsunspor announced that Sağlam would be returning to manage the club.[1]
