Ertuğrul Sağlam

Ertuğrul Sağlam (born November 19, 1969 in Zonguldak) is a Turkish football coach and former player. He is currently the manager of Turkish side Kayserispor, and was recently voted one of the top 20 most promising coaches by respected football magazine Champions.

As a player he scored 11 goals in 26 caps for Turkey, and was selected for the Euro 1996 squad. He played for Samsunspor and Besiktas between 1990 and 2003. When he was transferred from Samsunspor to Beşiktaş, he had been the biggest signing of all time. He was paid 70.000 YTL. For the time being, that amount of money was unprecedent in Turkish Football history. He played as a Attacking Midfielder and as a Striker before Beşiktaş. But John Toshack used Ertuğrul as a Defender Center. He was quite successful in that position,too. After he was traded in exchange with poor defender Erman Güraçar from Samsunspor, he could not stop his tears at the airport.

Sağlam had released some personal objectives. He wants to coach one of the big three clubs of Istanbul, he wants to work in Europe as a coach and finally one day he wants to become the coach of the Turkish national team.

In Turkish, the ğ indicates a lengthening of the preceding vowel, so phonetically, his name is pronounced Ertuurul Saalam.