Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

Did You Know?

• Approximately 35% of Turkish football fans support Fenerbahçe, making it the most popular club in Istanbul and Ankara.
• The Intercontinental Derby between Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray is named because Galatasaray is based on the European side of Istanbul and Fenerbahçe on the Asian side.
• Before Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium was built, the field was known as Papazın Çayırı (The field of the priest).

History

The founder and first president of Fenerbahçe, Nurizade Ziya Songülen, was introduced to football in England, where he studied after graduating from Istanbul Saint-Joseph College in 1903. Inspired by English football, he returned to Istanbul in 1906 and began forming a team with friends in Kadıköy and his former literature teacher Enver Yetiker. The prototype squad trained from June 1906, but the team was only completed as an 11-person side in spring 1907, leading to the official foundation on 3 May 1907 in Kadıköy by Ziya Songülen, Ayetullah Bey, and Necip Okaner. The club was founded secretly to avoid trouble with the strict Ottoman rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who forbade Turkish youth from forming clubs or playing football. Ziya Songülen became the first president, Ayetullah Bey the first general secretary, and Necip Okaner the general captain. The club's first crest featured yellow and white daffodil colors around a lighthouse on the Fenerbahçe cape, and the kits were yellow and white stripes. In 1910, Fenerbahçe won its first cup, defeating Strugglers F.C. 3–1 in a tournament final. The crest was redesigned in 1914 by Hikmet Topuzer after Ziya Songülen changed the colors to yellow and navy in fall 1908. The club's activities remained secret until a 1908 law reform required all football clubs to register legally.

Notable players

The first team captain was Necip Okaner, a founding member and Turkish Naval School student. Asaf Beşpınar, a student at Kadıköy Lycée Saint-Joseph, served as the first goalkeeper. Galip Kulaksızoğlu was the longest-serving original squad player, spending 17 years at the club and retiring in 1924 after 216 matches. Zeki Rıza Sporel and Bekir Refet, the first Turkish footballer to play abroad, emerged from the youth system. Zeki Rıza scored 470 goals in 352 matches over 18 years, making him the all-time top scorer, and also scored 15 goals in 16 appearances for the Turkish national team. Cihat Arman was a long-serving goalkeeper with 12 seasons and 308 matches. Lefter Küçükandonyadis, one of the first Turkish players in Europe, played for Fiorentina and Nice before returning to Fenerbahçe, scoring 423 goals in 615 matches and winning two Istanbul Football League titles and three Turkish League titles. Can Bartu became the next Turkish export to Europe, the first Turkish player in a European competition final (with Fiorentina against Atlético Madrid in 1962), and later played for Venezia and Lazio before returning to Fenerbahçe, where he won four league titles and scored 162 goals in 330 matches. Other notable Turkish players include Fikret Arıcan, Fikret Kırcan, Halit Deringör, Melih Kotanca, Burhan Sargun, Nedim Doğan, Cemil Turan, Selçuk Yula, Müjdat Yetkiner, Oğuz Çetin, Rıdvan Dilmen, Aykut Kocaman, Rüştü Reçber, and Tuncay Şanlı. Foreign players include Uche Okechukwu, who after 13 seasons became the longest-serving foreigner in Turkey, winning two league titles, and Brazilian-born Mehmet Aurélio, who in 2006 became the first naturalized Turkish citizen to play for the Turkish national team.

Dispute

Before the Süper Lig was founded in 1959, Turkey had other national championship competitions: the Turkish Football Championship (1924–1951) and the Turkish National Division (1937–1950). Fenerbahçe believes its domestic championship titles from these official TFF competitions should be recognised for championship stars and broadcasting rights bonuses, totalling 28 championship titles. In spring 2002, following a request by Beşiktaş, the TFF Arbitration Committee ruled that Beşiktaş's two cup victories (1956–57, 1957–58) in the Turkish Federation Cup should be retrospectively recognised as top-flight league titles, counting toward championship stars and broadcasting bonuses. Historians' analyses between 2021 and 2023 of that 2002 decision stated that Turkish league championships began before 1959 and that pre-1959 titles cannot be left uncounted. The TFF's online magazine lists Fenerbahçe's championships as three Türkiye Futbol Birinciliği titles, six Millî Küme titles, and 19 Türkiye Ligi titles, totalling 28 national championships. However, only the 19 Süper Lig titles are counted by the TFF for championship stars and broadcasting bonuses. In March 2021, Fenerbahçe officially applied to the TFF for recognition of its nine pre-1959 national titles as National League Championships with the same legitimacy as Süper Lig titles, and for the 28 titles to be registered for championship stars and a higher broadcasting bonus, similar to Beşiktaş.

Records and statistics

In the 1922–23 season, Fenerbahçe set a world record by winning the championship without conceding a single goal. In 1959, they became the first champion of the newly organised Turkish First Football League. The club won the Balkans Cup in 1968, an international milestone. In the 1969–70 season, they conceded only 6 goals, a record for fewest goals conceded in a single season that still stands. In the 1988–89 season, they scored 103 goals in 36 matches, achieving an average of 2.86 goals per game, the highest goal average in a single season. Müjdat Yetkiner holds the record for most appearances for the club, with 570 matches between 1975 and 1980. Zeki Rıza Sporel is the all-time top scorer with 470 goals in 353 matches. Aykut Kocaman holds the record for most league goals while wearing a Fenerbahçe jersey, with 140 goals in 212 matches. In the 1992–93 season, Tanju Çolak set the record for most goals in a single Turkish First Football League match, scoring six goals in a 7–1 victory over Karşıyaka. In European competitions, Fenerbahçe reached the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in 2007–08, becoming the second Turkish club to do so, and lost 3–2 on aggregate to Chelsea. In the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League, they reached the semi-finals, their deepest European run, losing 3–2 on aggregate to Benfica. In the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League, they reached the quarter-finals, losing 3–3 on aggregate to Olympiacos on away goals after a 1–0 home win.