Turkey's National Team Coach Yanal Formally Signs Four-year Contract

ISTANBUL - Turkey's national team coach Ersun Yanal has formally signed a contract on Monday in Istanbul.
Yanal who will also serve as Turkish Superleague team Genclerbirligi's coach until end of the 2003-2004 soccer season has been apponited for four years.
Yanal, who steered his unfancied Ankara side to the fourth round of the UEFA Cup last month where they were edged out by Valencia of Spain, was set to replace Senol Gunes, who was sacked last month in the wake of Turkey's failure to qualify for Euro 2004. Gunes had previously led the national side to third place in the 2002 World Cup.
As his first duty in his four-year stint, Yanal named a 27-man squad for a friendly against Belgium in Brussels on April 28:
Ibrahim Uzulmez (Besiktas), Umit Ozat, Fatih Akyel, Tuncay Sanli, Volkan Demirel (Fenerbahce), Gokdeniz Karadeniz, Fatih Tekke, Tolga Seyhan (Trabzonspor), Cagdas Atan (Denizlispor), Omer Catkic, Ibrahim Toraman (Gaziantepspor), Bulent Korkmaz, Hakan Sukur, Hasan Sas (Galatasaray), Murat Hacioglu (Diyarbakirspor), Deniz Baris, Serkan Balci (Genclerbirligi),Zafer Biryol (Konyaspor), Rustu Recber (Barcelona), Okan Buruk, Emre Belozoglu (Inter), Yildiray Basturk (Leverkusen), Nihat Kahveci (Real Sociedad), Umit Davala (Werder Bremen), Fatih Sonkaya (Roda), Hamit Altintop (Schalke), Halil Altintop (Kaiserlautern).
(MS-AY) 26.04.2004