In 2001, he was signed by Italian Serie A club Inter Milan along with his teammate Emre, where he played for three years. On August 26, 2001, Okan made his debut against Perugia coming in as a substitute for Seedorf. He made his first Champions League appearance for Inter in a home game win against Ajax on September 25, 2002.
On October 21, 2001, in the derby game against Terim's Milan, Okan made the assist to Kallon where Inter lost their home game 4–2 against their rivals.
Okan scored his first goal on the 89th minute helping his team to earn a 2–2 draw in an away game against Roma on November 16, 2002.
Okan was a non-stop running player with energy; he mentioned that his former coach Cuper yelled at him from the bench that he should stay at his position.
Besiktas
He played two seasons for Beşiktaş and he won the Turkish Cup in 2006.
Return to Galatasaray
In July 2006, Okan made his return to his former club Galatasaray by signing a two-year contract. After becoming Süper Lig winners in 2007–08 season his contract was not extended and Okan left the club.
İstanbul Başakşehir
After his contract expired with Galatasaray, Okan joined İstanbul B.B. in July 2008 for a two year deal.
Retirement
On May 22, 2010, he retired as a player after a friendly game against Czech Republic in Leipzig.[2]
After his playing career, Okan became a professional manager. On 10 May 2018, he guided Akhisarspor to their second trophy in their history, the 2017–18 Turkish Cup.[3]
After Akhisarspor, he managed Çaykur Rizespor from 2018 until 2019, before becoming the new manager of İstanbul Başakşehir on 11 June 2019. In his first season in charge, Buruk guided the club to their first ever league title.
In early 2021, he left İstanbul Başakşehir on "mutual agreement" after a string of poor results by the club under his management in the 2020–21 Süper Lig season.[4]
Galatasaray
On 21 June 2022, Okan Buruk arrived in Istanbul from France for negotiations, and the next day, on 22 June 2022, it was officially announced to the public through KAP (Public Disclosure Platform) that he would be joining Galatasaray.[5] On 23 June 2022, Galatasaray signed a two-year deal with Okan Buruk, with an option for an additional year.[6]
Under Buruk's coaching, Galatasaray achieved an impressive 14-game winning streak, setting a new record for the most consecutive wins in the league and also the longest winning streak in the club's history.[7]
With just two weeks remaining in the 2022–23 season, Okan Buruk led the team to secure the championship, marking his second Süper Lig title in his coaching career.[8]
During the 2023-24 season, Galatasaray successfully secured a spot in the Champions League group stage by overcoming three challenging qualifying rounds under Okan Buruk. Following a 0-0 draw with Kayserispor in the opening week of the league, the team impressively clinched victory in ten consecutive league matches.[9]
^"Match Press Kit (2009)"(PDF). Union of European Football Associations. p. 18. Archived from the original(PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
