Beşiktaş JKBeşiktaş JK, founded on 3 March 1903 as Bereket Jimnastik Kulübü, is the oldest officially registered sports club in Turkey and one of Istanbul's three major clubs, alongside Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe. Its football section was formed a few years later, in 1911, and the club is the only one in Turkish top-flight history never to have been relegated.
The figure of Süleyman Seba stands as a symbol of the club's identity - a player and later long-serving president of Beşiktaş, whose statue stands today near the club's headquarters in Akaretler. It was during his tenure that the club forged its image as a team built on fighting spirit and character, valuing close ties with its supporters more than any other major Turkish club.
The Kara Kartallar ("Black Eagles") have won 16 Turkish Süper Lig titles in their history, along with numerous domestic cups and super cups. Beşiktaş remains the only club in Turkish league history to win a championship without losing a single match, in the 1991-92 season. On the European stage, the club's furthest run came in the 1986-87 season, reaching the quarter-finals of the European Cup, while more recently, in 2017-18, it finished the Champions League group stage unbeaten and advanced to the knockout round.
Among the club's legendary players is pre-war forward Hakkı Yeten, who scored 382 goals for the club between 1931 and 1948, as well as Rıza Çalımbay - the club's record appearance holder - and Metin Tekin and Sergen Yalçın, symbols of the team's fighting spirit in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In more recent years, internationally renowned players such as Ricardo Quaresma, Pepe and Mario Gómez also wore the club's colours.
An inseparable part of the club's identity is the Çarşı fan group, whose name refers to the traditional market district neighbouring the stadium, and which is regarded as one of the most distinctive supporter communities in Europe.
The club plays its home matches at a stadium built in 2016 on the site of the historic İnönü Stadyumu, directly on the shores of the Bosphorus - a venue that has already changed its commercial name several times as sponsors have changed. The atmosphere on its terraces is considered one of the loudest in European football.
