Arif Erdem, born on January 2, 1972, is a former Turkish football player and coach who played as a striker. He spent most of his football life in Galatasaray; He was in the squad of the club's UEFA Cup victory in 2000 and the national team that finished third in the 2002 World Cup.
Club career
He started football at Zeytinburnuspor and became professional there in 1990. One season later, in 1991, he was transferred to Galatasaray. He was a regular in the yellow-red team's successive league championships in the second half of the 1990s, and was among the players who won the UEFA Cup championship in 2000.
In the summer of 2000, he went to Spain's Real Sociedad, but could only play a few matches there and returned to Galatasaray in November of the same year. He shared the league's top scorer with ฤฐlhan Mansฤฑz with 21 goals in the 2001-02 season. When he retired from football in 2005, he had spent a total of fourteen years in two spells at Galatasaray, winning seven Super League championships and more than one Turkish Cup. He scored over 100 goals in his league career.
He played 60 matches for the Turkish national team between 1994-2003 and scored 11 goals. He played in Euro 1996, the European Championship in which Tรผrkiye participated for the first time, in Euro 2000, where the quarter-finals were played, and in the 2002 World Cup.
After retiring from football, he first worked as an assistant coach at ฤฐstanbul Bรผyรผkลehir Belediyespor (today's Baลakลehir), and became the team's technical director in the 2011-12 season.
Following the coup attempt in July 2016, legal action was taken against him for alleged links to FETO, and he moved to Greece with his family the same month. Galatasaray ended its membership in 2017; With a decree issued in the same year, his medals given by the state were taken back.
