Rıza Çalımbay

Rıza Çalımbay
Personal information
Full name Rıza Çalımbay
Date of birth (1963-02-02) 2 February 1963
Place of birth Sivas, Turkey
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Playing position Winger
Club information
Current team
 Antalyaspor (manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1980–1996 Beşiktaş 494 (42)
National team
1980-1981 Turkey U18 6 (0)
1981-1984 Turkey U21 8 (0)
1981–1992 Turkey 51 (1)
Teams managed
2001–2002 Göztepe
2002–2003 Denizlispor
2004–2005 Çaykur Rizespor
2005 Beşiktaş
2005–2006 Ankaraspor
2007 Çaykur Rizespor
2008–2010 Eskişehirspor
2010–2013 Sivasspor
2013–2014 Çaykur Rizespor
2014–2015 Mersin İdmanyurdu
2015–2016 Kasımpaşa
2016– Antalyaspor

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Rıza Çalımbay, (born 2 February 1963 in Sivas, Turkey) is a former Turkish international footballer, and a manager. He was one of the symbol names of Beşiktaş J.K. and was among the best players of his time. Because of his determination and hard work he was nicknamed Atom Ant (in Turkish, "Atom Karınca").

Playing career

He started playing football in Beşiktaş J.K. academy. He has depicted for the first team in 1980–81 season. Until his retirement in 1996, he played only for Beşiktaş, and for the Turkish National Football Team, although he played in the UNICEF-world team against Germany and caught the eye of many clubs like Olympique Marseille but Çalımbay would not leave Beşiktaş. He played 494 league games for Beşiktaş and scored 41 goals. He is the most capped player for Beşiktaş. He was also the captain of the team. He also played 37 times for Turkey.

Managerial career

After retiring from football, Çalımbay took manager courses in England. In 2001, he became the assistant manager for Christoph Daum at Beşiktaş but after a short time he resigned, and became the manager of Göztepe, Denizlispor and Çaykur Rizespor. He was especially successful at Denizlispor, leading the team to latter stages in the UEFA Cup eliminating teams like Sparta Prague and the mighty Olympique Lyon side of Paul Le Guen. The FC Porto side of José Mourinho ended the UEFA Cup dreams of Denizlispor and Çalımbay after an 8–3 win on aggregate. In 2004/2005 season, he became the manager of Beşiktaş after Vicente Del Bosque was sacked. That season Beşiktaş was having really bad results and the squad was in a bad mood. But after Çalımbay took control the team started to perform really well. Çalımbay changed the system back to a 3–5–2 formation the usual formation and began playing good football he also picked a 4–3 win over rivals Fenerbahçe SK in the Fenerbahçe Stadium. However in the season 2005/2006, Beşiktaş was performing bad once again, Despite UEFA Cup wins against FC Vaduz and Malmö FF a 1–2 home defeat by Fenerbahçe SK took the coach into troubled waters. Çalımbay resigned in the 9th week after a 0–0 draw against Kayserispor. Jean Tigana became the manager of Beşiktaş after him. He then coached Ankaraspor but resigned after a few matches.

Çalımbay signed a 1.5 year contract with again Çaykur Rizespor, although he had options to coach abroad in Iran and Germany but he chose Çaykur Rizespor.

On 6 June 2008 he signed a 3 year deal with Eskişehirspor.

International goals

Managerial statistics

Updated 11.05.2015

Team Nat From To Record
G W D L Win % GF GA +/-
Göztepe Turkey 2001 2001 19 7 6 6 36.84 1934-15
Denizlispor Turkey 2002 2003 56 20 16 20 35.71 8177+4
Ankaragücü Turkey 2003 2004 24 10 4 10 41.67 3534+1
Çaykur Rizespor Turkey 2004 2005 19 9 5 5 47.37 2312+11
Beşiktaş Turkey 2005 2005 30 18 7 5 60 5026+24
Ankaraspor Turkey 2005 2006 6 1 2 3 16.67 710-3
Çaykur Rizespor Turkey 2007 2007 18 6 4 8 33.33 2021-1
Eskişehirspor Turkey 2008 2010 84 29 23 32 34.52 107104+3
Sivasspor Turkey 2010 2013 115 43 29 43 37.39 ??????
Çaykur Rizespor Turkey 2013 2014 22 5 6 11 22.73 2129-8
Mersin İdmanyurdu Turkey 2014 2015 45 18 10 17 41.46 7365+8
Kasımpaşa Turkey 2015 2016 38 15 9 14 41.46 7365+8
Total 434 165 111 158 38.02 ????????
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