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 Galatasaray Spor Kulübü - last updated on 5 June 2008
(Courtesy of Johnny Beaufays)
Club name: Galatasaray Spor Kulübü
Foundation: October 20th 1905
City: İstanbul
Colours: Yellow and red
Website: www.galatasaray.org
Honours:
Turkcell Süper Lig - 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)
Türkiye Kupası - 14 (1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1973, 1976, 1982, 1985, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2005)
TFF Süper Kupa - 10 (1966, 1969, 1972, 1982, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997)
İstanbul Ligi - 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)
İstanbul Kupası - 2 (1942, 1943)
A bit of 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. 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.
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.
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." 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.
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.
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.
Probably the greatest record that club holds is winning national championships in 15 different sport branches in 1986-87 season.
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.
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, Boduri who died aged 21, Mehmet Leblebi who scored a domestic record of 14 goals in a single match, Gündüz Kılıç nicknamed Baba (father) who was the coach but also the player of his team in 1950s with great success on both, Bülent-Reha Eken brothers, Suat Mamat who made a hat-trick in 1954 FIFA World Cup, Coşkun Özarı a life devoted to Galatasaray, Turgay Şeren the heroic goalkeeper that called "the Panther of Berlin", Fatih Terim the team captain of Galatasaray and Turkish National Football team for years and the current coach, Metin Oktay the legendary six time top scorer of the Turkish league, Zoran Simović another skilled goalkeeper known for his penalty saves, Cüneyt Tanman who played a record of 342 games for Galatasaray, Tanju Çolak an extraordinary goalscorer and European Golden Boot 1988 winner with Galatasaray, Cevad Prekazi an Albanian teammate of Tanju specializing in free kicks, Taffarel the world cup winner goalkeeper of Brazil, Gheorghe Hagi Romanian football hero that still described as the best foreign player ever to play in Turkey, 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.
Club crests: (roll on the crest to get more informations)
Galatasaray Spor Kulübü
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