Galatasaray SKThe aim that Ali Sami Yen set himself was simple: to play together like Englishmen, to have a colour and a name, and to beat the non-Turkish teams. In October 1905 this pupil of Istanbul's Galatasaray High School founded a club with a group of schoolmates, and in the century that followed it became one of the most recognisable in Turkey. Galatasaray SK is the oldest club in today's Süper Lig and one of the pioneers of organised football on the Bosphorus. Yen associated the yellow and red colours with the glow of fire, which he hoped would carry the team from one victory to the next. Supporters call the side Cimbom or 'Aslanlar', the Lions.
For decades the club's ground carried the founder's name: the Ali Sami Yen stadium, opened on 20 December 1964 in the Mecidiyeköy district, was its home until 2011 and earned a reputation among visiting sides as 'hell'. Since January 2011 Galatasaray has played in a new stadium in Seyrantepe, now called Rams Park, with a capacity of more than 50,000. The club holds the record number of Turkish championships of the Süper Lig era with 26, as well as 19 Turkish Cups and 17 Turkish Super Cups. The most recent titles, the 25th in 2024/25 and the 26th a year later, made it the first Turkish club entitled to wear a fifth star on its badge.
The great European chapter came in 1999/2000. A team coached by Fatih Terim, with Hakan Şükür, Gheorghe Hagi, Bülent Korkmaz, Gheorghe Popescu and goalkeeper Cláudio Taffarel, won the UEFA Cup, and at home added the league title and the Turkish Cup, three trophies in one season. The final was played on 17 May 2000 at Parken in Copenhagen. Galatasaray drew 0-0 with Arsenal after extra time, in which Hagi was sent off, and won the penalty shoot-out 4-1. Taffarel was regarded as the hero. It was the first European trophy ever won by a Turkish club, and it remains the only one.
Forty days after the final Terim left for Fiorentina, and Mircea Lucescu took over. On 25 August 2000 in Monaco Galatasaray met Real Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup. New signing Mário Jardel scored twice: the first a penalty in the 41st minute, the winner a 'golden goal' in the 103rd minute of extra time. The 2-1 result gave the club its second European trophy in three months. In the following season's Champions League the side beat Real Madrid 3-2 in the first leg of the quarter-final in Istanbul, recovering from two goals down at half-time, although it lost the return 3-0.
In later years the shirt was worn by further stars, among them Arda Turan, Didier Drogba, Wesley Sneijder and Mauro Icardi, while today the attack is led by Victor Osimhen. Galatasaray combines a deep tradition with the ambition to compete with Europe's best, and its supporters in Istanbul still create one of the loudest atmospheres on the continent.
