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Two Turkish head coaches will face each other in the UEFA Champions League for the first time when Shakhtar Donetsk play Fenerbahce on Nov. 25 in the fifth round of the league phase.
The match kicks off at 11 p.m. Turkish time (8 p.m. GMT) at Stamford Bridge in London.
Arda Turan coaches Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk. Emre Belozoglu is the new head coach of Istanbul side Fenerbahce.
Turan and Belozoglu played together for the Türkiye national team for many years. Turan wore the national jersey from 2006 to 2017, while Belozoglu played for the team from 2000 to 2019.
Both were in the squad at the 2008 European Championship, where Türkiye reached the semifinals.
The two players also shared a dressing room in 2012 at Atletico Madrid, one of Spain’s oldest clubs. Turan had joined the Spanish side in 2011. Belozoglu moved from Fenerbahce in the summer of 2012 to join him.
They played together for about six months. The best-known moment came on Aug. 31, 2012, when Atletico beat Chelsea 4-1 to win the UEFA Super Cup. After the trophy ceremony, Turan and Belozoglu carried a Turkish flag around the pitch.
Belozoglu made two UEFA Super Cup appearances in his career. The first came with Galatasaray against Real Madrid in 2000. He is the first and only Turkish player to feature in more than one winning side in the competition.
The pair’s work for Atletico at the same time made headlines in the Spanish press and earned them the nickname “Turkish Brothers.”
Belozoglu’s stay in Spain was short. He returned to his former club Fenerbahce at the end of January 2013 in the winter transfer window.
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