Emre Belözoğlu takes Fenerbahçe sports director role, later interim coach

Emre Belözoğlu, one of Fenerbahçe's best-known former players and a longtime captain, returned to the Istanbul club in a management role after ending his playing career. He became sports director, a post overseeing football planning and the link between the squad and the board.

His position changed in March 2021, when Erol Bulut left the head coach job. Belözoğlu was asked to lead the team on an interim basis, a step that put a first-time coach on the touchline for the rest of a Süper Lig (Turkey's top division) stretch. He stayed in charge for a short period of league matches before the club moved on to another arrangement.

The spell mattered because it was his first experience of running a senior side, and it tied his name to the club's technical leadership. It also explains why supporters and the Turkish press later kept returning to him as a possible permanent head coach, long before his later appointment.