Born on November 10, 1949, Mustafa Denizli was a former football player and coach who had success in Turkish football. He switched from playing football to coaching while a member of the Galatasaray team. Denizli began playing football in Izmir after seeing many of the national team’s victories.

The coach spent 17 years playing for the Izmir Altay team before starting to receive offers from Istanbul clubs, where he first gained notoriety. He gained notoriety in 1980 by tallying twelve goals in the Super League. Mustafa Denizli, who had been transferred to the National Team during those years, wore the National Team jersey 33 times. In 1983, he joined the Galatasaray football team and spent a year there playing football. Due to his team’s success, he continued his football career in 1984 by taking a position as Galatasaray’s assistant director. In 1987, he began his coaching career with Galatasaray.

Denizli remained the manager of Alemania Aechen in the German 2nd League after leaving his position as Galatasaray coach in 1989. Beginning in 1990, he parted ways with this group of players and rejoined Galatasaray as their head coach. For the final four years of his tenure as Galatasaray’s coach, Mustafa Denizli led the team to the Turkish Cup in 1990–1991. Denizli coached Kocaelispor for two years after his tenure at Galatasaray came to an end in 1994. When he rejoined the national team between 1996 and 2000, he made history by representing his country in the quarterfinals of the European Football Championship.

During this duty, Fenerbahçe’s coach after 2000, Mustafa Denizli, gave the team a taste of the championship. He began leading the Iranian team in 2004, but he had been leading Vestel Manisaspor since 2003. He worked here for two years before being transferred in 2006 to Persepolis, another Iranian team.

Mustafa Denizli, who was transferred to Beşiktaş in 2008, also helped the Beşiktaş team win the Turkish Cup. He had to leave his job that year due to health issues. Prior to 2011, Denizli worked as a football commentator for television programs. In 2011, he was appointed technical director of the Iranian team Persepolis. He switched teams at the beginning of 2013. He went back to his hometown of Galatasaray in 2015 to fill Hamza Hamzaolu’s position as technical director.