Trabzonspor Accepts Fatih Tekke's Emotional Resignation

Trabzonspor have drawn a line under Fatih Tekke’s turbulent week, accepting the head coach’s “emotional” resignation days after initially trying to keep him in the job.

Tekke, who guided the club to a third-place finish in the Super Lig last season, offered to step down in the aftermath of a bruising Europa League exit. Trabzonspor were dismantled 5-0 on aggregate by Hungarian side Ferencvaros in the play-off round, a result that shook the club and its coach.

On Friday, the board pushed back. They rejected his resignation and suggested the 48-year-old had acted under the “intense emotional impact” of that European collapse, hinting they believed he would cool off and carry on.

He did not. The pressure stayed. So did his stance.

By Wednesday, the mood had shifted. In a carefully worded statement, Trabzonspor confirmed they had now reached a “mutual understanding” with Tekke and agreed to part ways “in line with Trabzonspor’s interests and long-term objectives”.

The club were keen to underline what he leaves behind. Over an 18‑month spell, Tekke is credited with adding “significant value” to the team, both on the pitch and on the balance sheet. He helped develop new signings, delivered “important sporting and financial gains” and, crucially, brought silverware back to the Black Sea side.

By winning the Turkish Cup, Tekke “once again wrote his name into Trabzonspor’s history,” the statement read, a nod to his status as both former player and coach.

The club also highlighted Tekke’s insistence that he would never allow his own position to “harm Trabzonspor in any way”. From that point, the board said, both sides accepted that “drawing a new roadmap, prioritising the club’s interests above all else, had become unavoidable”.

Trabzonspor closed with a public thank you to their departing coach for “his efforts, his dedicated work, the successes he delivered, and the value he added”.

Now they must find the next man to steady a team still reeling from a European humiliation, but not so far removed from a domestic resurgence under the same coach they have just let go.