Fatih Tekke Resigns from Trabzonspor After Europa League Exit

Fatih Tekke’s second spell in charge of Trabzonspor is over, signed off not with a sacking but with an “emotional” resignation the club has now chosen to accept.

The decision comes in the harsh glare of Europe. Tekke stepped down after Trabzonspor’s Europa League play-off collapse against Ferencvaros, a 5-0 aggregate defeat that cut deep at a club that measures itself against nights on the continental stage.

At first, Trabzonspor tried to hold the line. On Friday they rejected his request to leave, publicly suggesting the 48-year-old had acted under the “intense emotional impact” of that Europa League exit. It was the response of a board that knew what Tekke had delivered and feared the void his departure might create.

But the pressure did not ease, and neither did the sense that something had broken. By Wednesday, the tone had changed. The club released a statement confirming a parting of ways, framed not as a rupture but as a carefully weighed decision.

Trabzonspor said they had reached a “mutual understanding” with Tekke and agreed to separate “in line with Trabzonspor's interests and long-term objectives”. The language was respectful, even protective, of a coach who had restored a measure of pride.

Over roughly 18 months, Tekke had rebuilt his reputation and burnished the club’s. He guided Trabzonspor to a third-place finish in the Super Lig last season, stabilising them in the upper reaches of the table and returning them to European competition.

Crucially, he also brought silverware. The Turkish Cup is back in the club’s museum, and with it Tekke’s name is etched once more into Trabzonspor history. The board made a point of underlining that legacy, highlighting not just trophies but “important sporting and financial gains” and his role in the development of the players added to the squad during his tenure.

The club’s statement painted a picture of a coach determined not to become a burden. Tekke, they said, had made it clear he would “never allow his presence to harm Trabzonspor in any way”. In the end, both sides accepted that “drawing a new roadmap, prioritising the club's interests above all else, had become unavoidable”.

There was no bitterness in the farewell, only gratitude. “We thank our coach for his efforts, his dedicated work, the successes he delivered, and the value he added to Trabzonspor,” the statement concluded.

Now the club must prove that this emotionally charged break from a successful coach is not the start of a slide, but the first step in a new phase.