Editing Fatih Terim (section)

== Club career ==
[[File:Fatih Terim - Adana Demirspor 1973 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Terim with [[Adana Demirspor]] in 1973]]
In 1969, Terim began his professional football career with Adana Demirspor. Because of his financial difficulties, he was the only player in the team who was being paid secretly by the club at the time.{{Clarify|date=November 2013|reason=Were the others being paid openly or not being paid at all?}}{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} He became the team captain three years later. He attracted attention with the game he displayed in Adana Demirspor, who became the champions of the [[TFF First League|2nd League]] in the [[:tr:1972–73 Türkiye 2. Futbol Ligi|1972–73 season]]. Terim played for Adana Demirspor until 1974, when he joined [[Galatasaray S.K. (football)|Galatasaray]] as a [[Sweeper (football)|sweeper]] on 8 July 1974. Terim played eleven years for the Istanbul club. During that time, the club never won the [[Süper Lig|Turkish league]] championship trophy.

He played for the [[Turkey national football team|Turkey national team]] 51 times between 1974 and 1985 and was the national team captain for 35 international matches, setting the national record in both categories at that time. In 1985, he had a fight with referee Hamza Alan for showing a red card to his teammate in a match and Terim was also shown a red card. It is alleged that Terim refused to leave the field, provoked the tribunes and was removed from the field by police forces. He decided to quit football after receiving a five-match penalty.

Terim's jubilee was held at [[Ali Sami Yen Stadium]]. He showed up to his jubilee match, which was between [[Trabzonspor]] and [[Galatasaray S.K.|Galatasaray]], by landing on the pitch by helicopter while the game was being played.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=Fatih Terim'in imparatorluk öyküsü |url=https://www.haberturk.com/fatih-terim--2681087 |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=[[Habertürk]] |language=tr}}</ref>

During his time as a footballer, he drew attention with his undisciplined behaviour and was frequently fined. [[Abdullah Gegiç]], a famous football coach with [[FK Partizan|Partizan]] in the former Yugoslavia and [[Eskişehirspor]] in Turkey, knew Terim from his days as a central defender and described him as an intelligent defender with "[[Franz Beckenbauer|Beckenbauer]]-like" qualities. Gegiç attributed Terim's successes as a coach to the unique understanding of the game that he developed while playing as a central defender.