Metin Oktay was born on February 2, 1936, in the Karลฤฑyaka district of Izmir, as the ninth child born after eight daughters. His father, Hasan, was a machine worker in the factory and his mother, Fatma, was a housewife; her siblings were Adviye, Nermin and Mรผnevverdi. Oktay, who started his primary school years in Karลฤฑyaka Soฤukkuyu, moved to Alsancak with his family and then transferred to Gazi Primary School, then graduated from ฤฐzmir ฤฐnรถnรผ High School and Mithatpaลa Men's Art Institute Furniture Department. He started playing football with the school team in high school.
His football adventure started in 1952 with Damlacฤฑkspor, one of Izmir's local teams. He started his professional career by transferring to Yรผn Mensucat after one season, and then to ฤฐzmirspor in the 1954-55 season; Here he became the Izmir Professional League champion and top scorer in his only season. Oktay, who signed with Galatasaray in 1955, won the Istanbul Professional League championships in the 1955-56 and 1957-58 seasons and became the top scorer for three consecutive seasons.
He remained the top scorer in the first three seasons of the National League, was transferred to Palermo in Serie A in 1961, but returned to Galatasaray after one season. In the second period, he won three league, four Turkish Cup and two Presidential Cup championships; He was also elected top scorer three more times in the 1962โ63, 1964โ65 and 1968โ69 seasons. The 38 goals he scored in the 1962-63 season were recorded as the most goals in a season until then.
Oktay, who played 324 league matches for Galatasaray, became one of the top scorers of the club and Turkish football with 294 goals. He played 36 times in the national team since 1955 and scored 19 goals; With this performance, he became the seventh top scorer in the history of the national team and the third best in terms of goals per game average.
Shortly after ending his playing career, he served as assistant coach of Galatasaray in the 1969-70 season; He left this position at the end of the season with the change of coach. He took the same position at Bursaspor in the 1972-73 season, was appointed coach in the middle of the season and managed the team until the end of 1973.
After his retirement, he worked as a manager at Galatasaray and continued as a sports writer in various newspapers. He passed away at the age of 55 as a result of a traffic accident at the exit of the Bosphorus Bridge on September 13, 1991.