Ferhat Akbaş

Ferhat Akbaş
Ferhat Akbaş
Personal information
Born	April 12, 1986 (age 38); Turkey
Hometown	Istanbul, Turkey
Height	1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)
College / University	Kocaeli University
Coaching information
Current team	Croatia women's national volleyball team (coach)
Previous teams coached
2004–2006; 2006–2011; 2011–2012; 2013–2014; 2014–2015; 2017–2018; 2017–2019; 2019–2021; 2021–;	Galatasaray women's (statistician); Türk Telekom Ankara (assistant); Evergrande Hengda (assistant); Turkey (assistant); Turkey; Japan (assistant); CSM București; KPS Chemik Police; Eczacıbaşı Dynavit;
	Last updated: December 7, 2022

Ferhat Akbaş (born April 12, 1986) is a Turkish volleyball coach and former volleyball player. He is 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) tall.^[1] He Is the currently coach of Croatia women's national volleyball team. He also trained Japan women's national team and Turkey Women.

He is a graduate of business administration from Kocaeli University.^[2]

Career

Player

At first Akbaş wanted to become a basketball player, however as he missed the date of the qualification, found himself in volleyball.^[1] He played volleyball in Marmara College and Arçelik volleyball clubs. Ferhat Akbaş was a member of the Turkey men's national volleyball team.^[3] His career as a player did not last long as he chose to pursue a coaching career.^[1]

Coach

He began his technical staff career as a statistics coach at Galatasaray women's volleyball team in 2004, and continued until 2006. The next season, he transferred to Türk Telekom Ankara to serve in the same position. His next post was the assistant coach of Lang Ping at Türk Telekom Ankara in the 2011–12 season. Then, he followed her to China, where he served from 2011 to 2012, and enjoyed champion title with Evergrande Hengda team.^[2]^[3] In the playing-free summer time, he went to Turkey to serve as statistics coach of Serbian-French Veljko Basic, who was the head coach of the Turkey men's volleyball team.^[1]

During his time in China, he received an offer from Vakıfbank women's team to serve as assistant coach of Giovanni Guidetti.^[1] In 2013, he became the assistant coach of Massimo Barbolini at Turkey women's national volleyball team.^[1]^[3]

At the age of only 28, he was appointed head coach of the Turkish women's national team, which won the gold medal at the 2014 Women's European Volleyball League.^[1] At the final match, he guided the Turkish team to victory against the German national team, which was coached by his former boss Giovanni Guidetti.^[1]^[4]

On 29 April 2021 Eczacibasi Vitra announced the appointment of Ferhat Akbaş as the new Head Coach of Eczacıbaşı VitrA. Akbaş who won the Polish League title last season as the coach of Chemik Police will be the Head Coach starting with the 2021–2022 season.