Hikmet Karaman (born March 9, 1960) is aUEFA pro licensed Turkish football manager.^[1] He is the current head coach ofMoldovan Super Liga clubZimbru Chișinău.

Hikmet Karaman

Karaman in 2012
Personal information
Date of birth	(1960-03-09)March 9, 1960 (age 65)
Place of birth	Tirebolu,Giresun,Turkey
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Team information
Current team	Zimbru Chișinău (head coach)
Managerial career
Years	Team
1998	Zeytinburnuspor
1998–1999	Erzurumspor
1999	Çaykur Rizespor
1999–2000	Adanaspor
2000–2003	Kocaelispor
2003–2004	Çaykur Rizespor
2004–2005	Kayserispor
2006	Ankaragücü
2006	Malatyaspor
2006–2007	Ankaragücü
2007–2008	Ankaraspor
2008	Antalyaspor
2009	Ankaragücü
2010–2011	Manisaspor
2012–2013	Gaziantepspor
2013	Bursaspor
2013–2014	Kayseri Erciyesspor
2014–2017	Çaykur Rizespor
2018	Alanyaspor
2018–2019	Kayserispor
2020	Yeni Malatyaspor
2021	Ankaragücü
2021–2022	Kayserispor
2024	Adana Demirspor
2024–	Zimbru Chișinău

In the beginning of his coaching career, Hikmet Karaman worked as an assistant coach for managers likeReinhard Saftig andMustafa Denizli inGalatasaray andKocaelispor, as well asHolger Osieck in bothKocaelispor andFenerbahçe. As a head coach he previously worked for clubs, such as,Kocaelispor,Zeytinburnuspor,Erzurumspor,Çaykur Rizespor,Adanaspor,Kayserispor,MKE Ankaragücü,Ankaraspor,Antalyaspor,Manisaspor, andGaziantepspor, respectively. During his career he has won the Turkish Cup withKocaelispor and the TFF 1. Lig withÇaykur Rizespor andAntalyaspor.

He was born inTirebolu,Giresun, Turkey^[2] on March 9, 1960. He holds a UEFA Pro-License and can speak German at advanced level and English at an elementary level. Hikmet Karaman started his Football career in the junior category ofKocaelispor; as a striker first, then as a midfielder, and finally as a left-back. While studying inBerlin, Germany, he played at Rot-Weiß football club. After Rot-Weiß, he played for Normania 08 club in Germany. Then he served as a trainer-player forBerlin Turkspor 1965, where they won the championships of A Liga, Landes Liga, and raised the team to the German third division. Hikmet Karaman received his C, B and A licenses at theKöln Hennef Sportschule. His course lecturers were Bernt Stöber,Holger Osieck, Rute Muller andBerti Vogts. Currently, Hikmet Karaman holds a UEFA pro-license.

In 1994, Hikmet Karaman returned to Turkey and worked forKocaelispor as assistant coach, together withReinhard Saftig. In 1995–1996, he was passed toGalatasaray together withReinhard Saftig, as an assistant manager. That year,Galatasaray played againstIFK Göteborg,Manchester United andBarcelona in the UEFA Champions League. In the 1997–1998 season, he came back toKocaelispor and worked as the assistant forMustafa Denizli, the former coach ofTurkey national team,Galatasaray,Fenerbahçe andBeşiktaş. Later in 1998, Hikmet Karaman worked withHolger Osieck and won the Turkish Cup. In 1999, he leftKocaelispor and started his career as head coach withZeytinburnuspor. He stayed there half a season and then moved toErzurumspor in Turkish Super League. Again only spending half a season there, in 1999, Hikmet Karaman took overAdanaspor. He took the team that was last and finished them within the first eight. He stayed inAdanaspor for two years, until 2001.

In 2001, Hikmet Karaman came back toKocaelispor, who had only gotten 9 points in 16 games, and completed the season with 41 points. To add to his success, he defeatedGalatasaray, coached byMircea Lucescu, with a score of 3–2 inIstanbul and won the next year's Turkish Cup by defeating another Istanbul giant,Beşiktaş, coached byChristoph Daum with even a more jaw-dropping score of 4–0 in the final. This victory had entitled his team to join the UEFA Cup. Furthermore, during the preparatory camp for this season, his team defeatedArsenal coached byArsène Wenger with a remarkable score of 4–1. After spending two years inKocaelispor, Hikmet Karaman worked forÇaykur Rizespor and left this job in February 2004 after a loss to Denizlispor at home.

In the same year, Hikmet Karaman started coachingKayserispor. He came to the job facing a challenging problem. Kayserispor had only been able to accumulate 2 points in the first 7 weeks of the season before his arrival. He successfully laid the foundations of today's Kayserispor by getting only 4 losses in 17 games in the second half. Thus, he was able to save Kayserispor from relegation. In the summer of 2006, he signed withMKE Ankaragücü again in the Turkish Super League. The following season, he leftMKE Ankaragücü forAnkaraspor. Hikmet Karaman helpedAnkaraspor, which had only received 3 points in 9 games with no wins, stay in the Super League at the end of the season. In 2008, Hikmet Karaman started managing Antalyaspor in the second division and led the team to a promotion. In the 2009–2010 season, Hikmet Karaman came back toMKE Ankaragücü towards the end of the season and helped the team stay in the Super League, with five wins, in spite of the negative expectations. In 2010, he took overManisaspor with 0 points after four games, and finished the season with 41 points with, even, some victories againstThe Big Three.

In the 2012–13 season, Hikmet Karaman came toGaziantepspor, replacingAbdullah Ercan. On February 4, 2013, Hikmet Karaman terminated his contract withGaziantepspor and signed withBursaspor two days later. After defeat of 0–3 at home toFK Vojvodina in UEFA Europa League second qualifying round, he was dismissed fromBursaspor, just before beginning of Turkish Super League 2013–14 season.^[3] On 11 December 2014, he was appointed as the manager of Çaykur Rizespor afterMehmet Özdilek. During the 2014-2015 season, he coached Rizespor for 22 matches and finished 14th in the league. He was kept as the manager of Rizespor in the following three seasons, coaching the team for 128 matches until he parted ways with the club by mutual agreement in 2017.^[4]

On 18 October 2024, theMoldovan Super Liga clubZimbru Chisinau announced that they had reached an agreement with Karaman for the head coach position.^[5]

Kocaelispor

• Turkish Cup:2001–02

As of 2 March 2019

• Profile at TFF.org
• Profile at Mackolik.com