Galatasaray S.K. (football)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 05/2014
Full name:
Galatasaray Spor Kulübü
Nicknames:
• Cimbom (Most common)
• Aslan (The Lion)
• Sarı Kırmızılılar (Yellow-Reds)
• Avrupa Fatihi (Conqueror of Europe)
• Gala (mostly used outside of Turkey)
Founded:
30 October 1905
(as Galata-Serai Football Club)
Ground:
Türk Telekom Arena
Capacity:
52,652
President:
Ünal Aysal
General Director:
Lütfi Arıboğan (CEO)
Manager:
Roberto Mancini
League:
Süper Lig
2013-14:
2nd
Galatasaray Spor Kulübü, commonly known as Galatasaray, is a Turkish professional football club based in Istanbul, Turkey.
It is the association football branch of the larger Galatasaray Sports Club, itself a part of the Galatasaray Community which includes the Galatasaray University and Galatasaray High School.
Galatasaray has won 46 domestic trophies, including a record 19 Süper Lig titles, a record 15 Turkish Cups and a record 13 Turkish Super Cups.
It is one of three teams to have participated in all seasons of the Turkish Süper Lig since 1959, following the dissolution of the Istanbul Football League, and are the only club to have won the Süper Lig in four successive seasons.
Internationally, Galatasaray has won the UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup in 2000, becoming the first Turkish team to win a European trophy, and one of the few teams in the history of UEFA competitions to become the undefeated winners of a major tournament, losing none of their games in the 1999-2000 UEFA Cup season.
In the 1999-2000 season, the club achieved the rare feat of completing a quadruple by winning the Turkish Süper Lig, the Turkish Cup, the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup in a single season.
Galatasaray is also the only Turkish club to have been ranked 1st on the IFFHS World Rankings.
Since 2011, the club's stadium is the 52,695 capacity Türk Telekom Arena in Seyrantepe, Istanbul.
Previously, the club had played at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium, as well as a succession of other grounds in Istanbul, which included groundshares with Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe at the Taksim Stadium and İnönü Stadium.
The club has a long-standing rivalry with other major Istanbul teams, namely with Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe.
The derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe is dubbed the Kıtalar Arası Derbi (English: Intercontinental Derby) due to the location of their headquarters and stadiums on the European (Galatasaray) and Asian (Fenerbahçe) sides of the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul.