Çağdaş Atan

Çağdaş Atan (born 29 February 1980) is a Turkish football manager and a former player who played as a central defender. He is the manager of İstanbul Başakşehir of the Süper Lig. He began his career at Altay and Marmaris before playing for clubs like Denizlispor, Beşiktaş, and Trabzonspor. He also had a brief stint with Germany's Energie Cottbus. Atan joined Basel in 2009, winning domestic titles and playing in European competitions. He later played for Turkish clubs like Mersin İdman Yurdu, Akhisarspor, Gaziantep BB, and Manisaspor before retiring in 2015.

Atan represented the Turkey national team, earning his first cap in 2004 and scoring his debut goal in a friendly against Croatia. He briefly played for the U21 team as well. After retiring, he transitioned into coaching, working as an assistant manager and eventually becoming the head coach of Alanyaspor in 2020. He continued his managerial career with Kayserispor in 2022, achieving respectable finishes in the Süper Lig. Atan is recognized for his contributions to Turkish football both as a player and manager.

Early career
Atan began his career with Altay before moving to Marmaris, where he signed his first professional contract, in 2000. He returned to Altay in 2001 and played for two seasons. After that, he signed for Denizlispor and Beşiktaş On 1 June 2006, he transferred to Trabzonspor, based in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon.

In the summer of 2008 Atan signed a two-year contract with German club FC Energie Cottbus. But because the team suffered relegateion he stayed with the club just one season. After their relegation Energie Cottbus had made Atan an offer for the 2. Bundesliga, but the financial ideas of the two sides were too far apart.

Basel
On 25 June 2009 it was announced that Atan had joined FC Basel on a free transfer. He joined Basel's first team in advance of their 2009–10 season under head coach Thorsten Fink. After playing in three test games, Atan played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game in the Kybunpark on 12 July 2009 as Basel won 1–0 against St. Gallen. He scored his first goal for his new club in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park on 20 February 2010. It was the winning goal of the match as Basel won 2–1 against Aarau. Basel joined the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League in the second qualifying round. Basel advanced to the group stage, in which despite winning three of the six games the ended in third position and were eliminated. They finished four points behind group winners Roma and one behind Fulham, against whom they lost 3–2 in the last game of the stage. Atan played the full 90 minutes. At the end of the 2009–10 season he won the Double with his club. They won the League Championship title with 3 points advantage over second placed Young Boys. The team won the Swiss Cup, winning the final 6–0 against Lausanne-Sport.

Basel started in the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round and advanced to the group stage, but ended the group in third position. Therefore, they dropped to the 2010–11 Europa League knockout phase, but here they were eliminated by Spartak Moscow. Atan played in six of the 10 Champions League matches, scoring a goal in the qualification game against Hungarian team Debrecen. He also played in 10 of the 18 domestic league matches in the first half of the season, however, in the second half of the season he was no longer considered by head coach Fink. With Basel, Atan won his second Swiss Championship at the end of the 2010–11 season.

The club decided not to extend Atan's contract. In his two seasons with the club, Atan played a total of 92 games for Basel scoring a total of four goals. 44 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, five in the Swiss Cup, 16 in the UEFA competitions and 27 were friendly games. He scored one goal in the domestic league, one in the Champions League and the other two were scored during the test games.

2011–2015: Later career
On 18 August 2011, it was announced tha Atan had joined the Turkish club Mersin İdman Yurdu, which had been promoted to the Süper Lig in the previous season. After just one season with Mersin İdman Yurdu, he left the club and moved within the league to newly promoted Akhisar Belediyespor. Unable to reach an agreement for a contract extension with his club during the summer, Atan moved to the second-tier team Gaziantep BB. However, he left Gaziantep BB during the next mid-season and instead joined league rival Manisaspor. Following the 2014–15 season, he retired from his career.

International career
On 18 February 2004 Çağdaş wore the Turkey national team jersey for the first time in a match against Denmark.On 31 March 2004, he scored his first national team goal in a friendly match against Croatia. He also played for the Turkey national under-21 football team 3 times and scored 1 goal.

Managerial career
In 2016 Atan started several tenures as assistant manager under Sergen Yalçın in various clubs. In 2020, he had the opportunity to take charge of a football team for the first time and became the head coach of Alanyaspor. During his tenure, he successfully managed the team, finishing the 2020–21 Süper Lig season in 7th place.

On 15 June 2022, he continued his managerial career by signing with Kayserispor. In his first season he led Kayserispor to finish the Süper Lig season under his leadership in 9th place. With his football knowledge and managerial abilities, Atan is considered as one of the important figures in Turkish football. In the 2023–24 season, Kayserispor made a promising start by securing one win and three draws in their first four matches under the guidance of Atan. However, the team faced a challenge as the transfer window remained closed since the season's commencement. Atan consistently communicated his concerns to the club's board about the team's unaddressed transfer needs. On 6 September 2023 following the closure of the transfer window, Atan officially announced his departure from Kayserispor via a statement posted on social media.

On 9 September 2023, After Emre Belözoğlu's departure, İstanbul Başakşehir announced the appointment of Atan as the new manager. On 11 September 2023, Atan signed an official contract with a duration of 2+1 years with the İstanbul Başakşehir. The signing ceremony occurred at Başakşehir Fatih Terim Stadium.

International

 * Scores and results list Turkey's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Atan goal.

Player
Beşiktaş
 * Turkish Cup: 2005–06

Basel
 * Swiss Super League: 2009–10
 * Swiss Cup: 2009–10