Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (also referred to as Galatasaray SK,
Galatasaray AS or simply Galatasaray) is a
Turkish
sports club based in
Istanbul,
famous for its
football section. Galatasaray S.K. was founded in
1905, by
Ali Sami Yen and his fellows from the prestigious
Galatasaray High School. Galatasaray is the most successful club in
the history of Turkish football, having won more trophies than any other
Turkish club.[3]
Galatasaray holds the best international record by a Turkish team as
well. They became the first Turkish club to capture a major
European
title, beating
Arsenal of England in
UEFA Cup
final during the
1999–2000 season. They lifted another prestige trophy when they beat
Los Galácticos, the
UEFA Champions League winner
Real Madrid, in the
Super Cup same year.[4]
Galatasaray topped the world club ranking to be named "Best Football Club
in the World" in January 2001.[5]
The club also operates amateur sport teams that compete at
Athletics,
Basketball,
Wheelchair basketball,
Volleyball,
Water
polo,
Swimming,
Rowing,
Sailing, Judo
and
Motorsports (Superleague
Formula). These include
Galatasaray Café Crown and
Galatasaray S.K. Voleybol. There are other now-defunct branches that
used to represent the club with success, including the inspirational
season in 1987,
when Galatasaray won titles in 16 different sports.[6]
Recently, Galatasaray has won the 2007-2008
Turkish Super League title and will be one of the two teams
representing Turkey in the 2008-2009
Champions League
Galatasaray's finishing positions in Turkish League since 1959 |
HISTORY
Galatasaray was founded in the
autumn of
1905, by
Galatasaray Lisesi students as a
football club. Galatasaray's first president was
Ali Sami Yen. Their first match was against Kadıköy Faure School and
they won this match 2–0.[7]
There were discussions about the clubs name, in which some suggested
Gloria (victory) and others Audace (courage), but it was
decided that its name would be Galatasaray.[8]
According to researcher Cem Atabeyoğlu, Galatasaray took its name from
one of its first matches. In that match, Galatasaray won 2–0 over
Rûm club and
the spectators called them "Galata Sarayı efendileri" (in
English: Gentlemen of Galata Palace), and, after this event, they
adopted that name and started to call their club "Galata Sarayı". In
1905, during
the era of the
Ottoman Empire, there were no laws for associations so the club could
not be registered officially, but, after the
1912 Law of
Association, the club registered legally.[9]
This was how the first
Turkish
football club was founded. Among with the founder Ali Sami Yen, the co-founders
were the ones who were keen to do this sport, such as Asim Tevfik Sonumut,
Reşat Şirvani, Cevdet Kalpakçıoğlu, Abidin Daver and Kamil.
At first, the colors of the Galatasaray Sports Club were red and white.
These are the colors in
Turkish flag. However, Turkish Republic was not founded at that time.
Therefore, this inspiration caused repressive administration of the day
feel uncomfortable and the administration hounded the footballers. For
this reason, the colors were changed.
New colors were chosen as red and yellow.
Ali Sami Yen stated, "We were imagining brightness of yellow - red
fire over our team and thinking that it would carry us from one victory to
another."[9]
It eventually did.
Since there were not any Turkish teams, Galatasaray joined the Istanbul
League that was consisting of English and Greek teams in the season of
1905–1906.
With their first championship title they won in
1907–1908,
they heralded the beginning of Turkish football history.[10]
While the football in
Turkey
began to fully develop, Galatasaray won ten more Istanbul League
titles, six Sunday League titles and three Friday League
titles until 1952.
Upon recognition of professional football in
1952, the
first professional but nonnational league of Turkey, Istanbul
Professional League played between
1952 and
1959.
Galatasaray won three of these seven titles.
Türkiye Profesyonel 1. Ligi (today it is organized with the name
Turkcell Super League) formed in
1959. This is
the top-flight professional league in Turkish nationwide football, and the
most popular sporting competition in the country. Galatasaray joined all
seasons and won 17 league titles since then.[11]
The Turkish Football Federation starts to organize "Turkish Cup" (today
it is organized with the name
Fortis Turkey Cup) in the
1962–63
season for Turkish clubs to qualify for the
UEFA
competitions. This is the only national cup competition in Turkey.
Galatasaray joined all seasons and won 14 trophies since then.[12]
Probably the greatest record that club holds is winning national
championships in 15 different sport branches in
1986–87
season.[6]
Galatasaray's most successful era came in late 1990s, when the club won
the
UEFA Cup and
European Super Cup and becoming the first Turkish football club ever
to win a European trophy. They were aided in this by one of Turkey's best
generation of home grown footballers who went on to finish third in the
2002 FIFA World Cup and played quarter finals of
UEFA Euro 2000. Besides the talented players, visiting teams also
disliked traveling into
Ali Sami Yen Stadium which is literally called "Hell" by the
supporters of Galatasaray due to the intimidating atmosphere provided by
the fans including chants and riots in the crowds.[13]
Galatasaray is the only team to have won the
Turkish League title, the
Turkish Cup, the
UEFA Cup
and the
UEFA Super Cup in the same season. Galatasaray holds the record of
winning four consecutive Turkish league titles, which all of these came
under the coaching of
Fatih Terim and the visionary club president
Faruk Süren.
There are many successful footballers played for Galatasaray and made
their mark on Turkish football history. Few examples may be 1930s national
hero
Eşfak Aykaç,[14]
Boduri who died aged 21,[15]
Mehmet Leblebi who scored a domestic record of 14 goals in a single match,[16]
Gündüz Kılıç nicknamed Baba (father) who was the coach but also
the player of his team in 1950s with great success on both,[17]
Bülent-Reha Eken brothers, Suat Mamat who made a hat-trick in
1954 FIFA World Cup,[18]
Coşkun Özarı a life devoted to Galatasaray,[19]
Turgay Şeren the heroic goalkeeper that called "the Panther of
Berlin",[20]
Fatih Terim the team captain of Galatasaray and Turkish National
Football team for years and the current coach,[21]
Metin Oktay the legendary six time top scorer of the Turkish league,[22]
Zoran Simović another skilled goalkeeper known for his penalty saves,[23]
Cüneyt Tanman who played a record of 342 games for Galatasaray,[24]
Tanju Çolak an extraordinary goalscorer and
European Golden Boot
1988 winner
with Galatasaray,[25]
Cevad Prekazi an Albanian teammate of Tanju specializing in free kicks,[26]
Taffarel the world cup winner goalkeeper of
Brazil,[27]
Gheorghe Hagi Romanian football hero that still described as the best
foreign player ever to play in Turkey,[28]
and last but not least,
Hakan Şükür, the player who scored most goals in the first division of
Turkish football history (249 goals) and still scoring.
The
UEFA Cup 2000 season was won by Galatasaray of Turkey, who defeated
Arsenal F.C. of England in the final. It is the first time a Turkish
side has won a European club football trophy, prompting wild celebrations
on the streets of
Istanbul.
Galatasaray entered the competition through the back door - as one of
the third-placed teams in the first group stage of the
UEFA Champions League. Even then they had to beat
AC Milan in their last game to qualify. But win they did, and that
victory was the start of a run which took the Cimbom from the UEFA Cup
Third Round, past
Bologna FC,
BV Borussia Dortmund,
RCD Mallorca and
Leeds United AFC, to the final at the
Parken Stadium.[29]
The game was scoreless through the first ninety minutes and stayed that
way through thirty minutes of extra time. In the ensuing penalty shoot-out,
Patrick Vieira and
Davor Šuker missed for
Arsenal F.C. Galatasaray's
Ergun Penbe,
Hakan Şükür,
Umit Davala all gave
David Seaman no chance with their spot-kicks before
Gheorghe Popescu, scored the winning kick to win the cup.
Galatasaray had won an impressive treble that season, after claiming
Turkish league title, as well as the
Turkish Cup.
-
Turkish Super League Championships:
- Winners (17): 1961–62, 1962–63, 1967–69, 1970–71, 1971–72,
1972–73, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1996–97, 1997–98,
1998–99, 1999–2000, 2001–02, 2005–06, 2007–08
-
Turkish Cup:
- Winners (14): 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1973, 1976, 1982,
1985, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2005
-
Turkish Super Cup /
President Cup:
- Winners (10): 1966, 1969, 1972, 1982, 1987, 1988, 1991,
1993, 1996, 1997
-
Chancellor Cup:
- Winners (5): 1975, 1979, 1986, 1990, 1995
-
TSYD Cup:
- Winners (12): 1963, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1977, 1981, 1987,
1991, 1992, 1997, 1998, 1999
Note that there were no professional leagues nor developed football
organizations in Turkey before 1960s. These competitions below are not
recognized by
Turkish Football Federation.
- Turkish Football Championship:
- Winners (9): 1931–32, 1933–34, 1935–36, 1940–41, 1941–42,
1942–43, 1946–47, 1949–50, 1950–51
-
Istanbul Football League:
- Winners (16): 1908–09, 1909–10, 1910–11, 1913–14, 1917–18,
1922–23, 1923–24, 1924–25, 1925–26, 1928–29, 1930–31, 1937–38,
1948–49, 1954–55, 1955–56, 1957–58
-
Istanbul Football Cup:
-
Istanbul Shield:
-
-
Ali Sami Yen
Galatasaray played its first years in different fields, since there
were not any stadiums in
Istanbul.
In 1921, the
first stadium,
Taksim Stadium opened.[30]
Galatasaray played there until
1940. When
historic Taksim Stadium was demolished, Galatasaray decided to build a
large, modern stadium. Due to difficulties stemming from
World War II, construction was delayed for over two decades. In this
period, they played in
İnönü Stadium.
On
20
December 1964,
Ali Sami Yen Stadium opened.[31]
It is named after the founder of the club,
Ali Sami Yen. It is in Mecidiyeköy quarter of the
Şişli
district at the center of the city. In
1964, the
stadium had capacity over 35,000. Today, due to improvements in security
and prohibition of non-seater spectators, it has an
all-seater capacity of 24,990.[32]
After 2002,
when
Atatürk Olympic Stadium built for
Istanbul's
Olympic Games bid, Galatasaray started to play
European Cup matches there. The attendance record among Turkish
stadiums was broken there, in
Galatasaray–Olympiacos
match played in front of 82,000 spectators. Yet,
Ali Sami Yen Stadium has historic importance for Galatasaray fans
although it is smaller and older.[33]
- Stadium Anthem
Since 1998,
after every goal scored by Galatasaray, the last part of the song
I Will Survive by the
Hermes House Band played. Although the song is in English, the part
used has no lyrics except "la la la la". This makes it easy for fans to
participate.
In addition, before every game the Florida State Warchant is played
accompanied by what the fans call a "scarf show" where fans display and
wave their Galatasaray scarves, banners and flags.[34]
-
In recent years, numerous proposals have been put forward to demolish
the current stadium and build a larger one on the same location, but this
is impossible due to the lack of space. Finally, the club's ground,
Ali Sami Yen Stadyumu, is going to be replaced with a
new ground in Seyrantepe, near
Maslak
financial district. The multi-purpose sports complex is scheduled to be
completed in 2009,
with fully
retractable roof and a seating
capacity for 52,000 spectators.
[35]
-
There had been self-organized fans within different groups, but the
unity and coordination come out when
ultrAslan founded in
2001.
Galatasaray is the most supported team in
Turkey,
so that made ultrAslan the greatest football supporters' federation just
after foundation.[36]
The smaller groups unified to form one large group, and they choose the
name ultrAslan (ultras merged aslan), which means
Ultras
Lions. Unlike some other
Ultras
groups, ultrAslan, are apolitical. Their symbol is a
Lion,
specially designed for them, and their name is always written with the
same font on their banners. Since
2003, fan
group obtained the right to sell products carrying the ultrAslan logo, and
ultrAslan became a registered
trademark.[37]
Internal subdivisions developed within ultrAslan, to organize
Galatasaray fans in different cities of
Turkey.
Besides geographic based divisions, ultrAslan-UNI was launched to
organize all Galatasaray fan groups in Turkish
universities and ultrAslan-BH is the youth section of the group,
mostly made up of
college
students. ultrAslan-EUROPE,[38]
established in
2004, has coordinators in nearly every European country and followed
by uA-America,[39]
uA-Asia, uA-Africa and uA-Australia.[40]
If having an active
hooligan scene is a pre-requisite to joining the
EU then
Turkey should be a shoe-in.[41]
The two other successful clubs of
Istanbul,
Beşiktaş J.K. and
Fenerbahçe S.K. have a long history of rivalry with
Cimbom.
There is not any religion or class based difference between the fans but
every match produces its own drama. The tension and the excitement are
building and building weeks before match days. Unfortunately, sometimes
this cause extremist fans to create
violence
and harm themselves, their own clubs, as well as opponents and the
Police on
match days. Fans also attach high importance to
UEFA
competitions.[42]
Torches, smoke, drums, flags and giant posters used to create visual
grandeur and apply psychological pressure on visiting teams, which fans
call welcoming them to hell.[43]
First-team squad
As of 15
May 2008,
according to official website.[44]
Players out on loan
Youth Facilities
Galatasaray has the most successful youth facilities in
Turkey.[47]
Gündüz Kılıç Youth Facilities in
Florya is
the center of the department. Club has been supporting and serving Turkish
Football since the Republican Period has given more than 300 footballers
to the National team.
The goal is to raise footballers who are loyal to Galatasaray
traditions who can develop creative ideas, have a high Standard of
capturing strategical points, fast, technical, powerful, determined, loyal
to fair play principles and have respect for the arbitrager, rival and
supporters.
Galatasaray Star Team became Champion in Europe recently, and
Galatasaray S.K. PAF are the champions of last three years in Turkish
Youth League.[48]
- Football Schools
Galatasaray football schools train children between seven and fifteen.
This organization is open for the whole year and gives education on
technical and strategical areas in football by giving an opportunity to
kids to practice what they learn during the lessons.
The organization consists of 10 football academies that are located in
Adana,
Ankara,
Antalya,
Denizli,
Eskişehir,
İzmir, Ordu,
Maltepe,
Mecidiyeköy and
Gaziantep aims to spread its wings through all parts of
Turkey.
Other football schools which are ready to give training to children will
be opened in
Konya and
Manisa in the following days.[49]
Players and managers
| 1905 to 1979
1980s
1990s
|
1990s
2000s
|
2000s
|
List of Galatasaray managers
Great matches in Europe
