Trabzonspor is a
TurkishTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
football club, from the
Black Seaur a loser!The Black Sea is an inland sea bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and various straits. The Bosporus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects it to...
port city of
TrabzonTrabzon, historically known as Trapezus and Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road, became a melting pot of religions, languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Iran in...
playing in the Süper Lig.
Trabzonspor was formed in 1967 by a merger of four local clubs. Many of the players from these constituent teams became part of the Trabzonspor side that succeeded in winning promotion to the top division. Trabzonspor is the only club outside Istanbul to have won the Turkish title, earning a name as one of the "Big Four" alongside
BeşiktaşBeşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü is a professional sports club founded in 1903 and based in Beşiktaş district in Istanbul, Turkey...
,
FenerbahceFenerbahçe Spor Kulübü , commonly known as Fenerbahçe , is a professional sports club based in the district of Kadıköy in Istanbul, Turkey. The name of the sports club and its sea side district derive their names from a lighthouse located in Fenerbahçe district of Kadikoy...
, Galatasaray. Trabzonspor's nicknames are the "Burgundy Blues" and the "Black Sea storm".
Formation
At the time of Trabzonspor's formation the
Turkish Football FederationThe Turkish Football Federation , also called the Turkish Football Association, is the governing body of football in Turkey. It was formed on 23 April 1923. It organizes the Turkish national teams and the Turkish football league...
(TFF) was encouraging local teams in the same city to unify into a single side, in an attempt to foster competitiveness in Turkish football. Trabzon had an extremely competitive league dating back to the 1920s, and little love was lost between intense rivals who had been vying for the local title for so long. The most intense rivalry was between the two most successful sides, Idmangücü and Idmanocaĝi. Ultimately it was these two teams that were responsible for the many delays prior to formation of a single Trabzonspor side. As the TFF became aware of the reluctance of Idmangücü and Idmanocaĝi to amalgamate the remaining teams within the local league, these sides were threatened with sanctions if they did not consent. The final hurdle consisted of selecting colors for the new club and after further disagreement, burgundy and blue were chosen and Trabzonspor was formed.
The foundation of the Trabzon Training Society Alliance (Trabzon Idman Cemiyetleri Ittifaki) greatly affected Trabzon. In the coming years many new clubs like Idmanocagi, Idman gucu, and Necmiati, Trabzon Lisesi were founded, raising the number of clubs operating in the city to 4.The first organized game took place in 1923 with Idmanocagi taking the championship. They were champions again in 23-24, 24-25 seasons. By the end of 1929 other teams such as Lise, Muallim Mektebi and Ticaret Lisesi had grabbed a championship title.
The 1940s signaled the rise of High School Clubs.During these years 6 respective championships were taken by the High school Teams. Many of the new players took their start in High school clubs. After 1947-48 season championship was changing hands between Idmanocagi and Idmangucu. Within Necmiati also recovering two championships. Several new clubs were also established Dogan Genclik (est 1938) Akcaabat Genclik (est. 1941) Surmene Genclik (est 1950) Zafer Genclik (est. 1952) Yolspor (1953) Yalispor (est. 1955).
The rivalry was so deep that Ocak fans were supporting Galatasaray because of its Yellow-Red colors, and Idmangucu fans were supporting Fenerbahce, despite the fact that their colors were Green-White. Necmiati was out of this rivalry even though they had Yellow-Dark Blue colors, which resemble the colors of Fenerbahçe. Actually Trabzon football was the winner of this rivalry. First of all the passion for football was strong in the city. This rivalry lead great football stars to rise in Trabzon. Immigration, which was the destiny of Trabzon people has also effected the Trabzon football. Most of the stars left the city for receiving a higher education. They were really great stars in Istanbul and Ankara where they were going to school. Hasan Polat and his brother Ali Polat in Ankara Genclerbirligi, Selim Satiroglu, Ahmet Karlikli in Galatasaray, Taka Naci, Zekeriya Bali in Fenerbahce, Nazim Bilge in Besiktas were the football stars.
It was being planned to found a “City Team” in all the cities of the country. Football Federation Manager Orhan Seref Apak has begun on a project to make the football league more powerful and spreading the football to whole nation. Trabzon was also included in this project, however it was very hard to set a football club in Trabzon. The rivalry between Idmangucu and Idmanocagi was so strong that convincing these clubs to unify as a single city club was impossible. The efforts of a few idealists trying to accomplish this goal was fruitless.
The people of Trabzon wanted to set the team name as Trabzonspor but they were also felt the insecurity for not being able to succeed this. The officers were also not be able to end this. Ocak and Guclu fans wanted their names and their colors in this newly founded club. The meetings took days and nights, but even minor details caused huge problems. Gun shots were common in the meetings, therefore few meetings ended at the police department. On the other hand, Football Federation's deadline for “setting a city team” was approaching.
On 21 June 1966 Idmanocagi, Martispor, and Yildizspor have attended under the name of Idmanocagi and with the yellow-red colors to the second league. But the official attendance letter was not sent in the time, so Idmanocagi couldn’t play in second league. On 20 July 1966 Idmangucu, Karadenizgucu, Martispor and Yolspor unified under the name of Trabzonspor with the color of red-white to attend to the second league. But Idmanocagi gave this decision to the higher court of ‘Danistay’ and Danistay stopped the ability of trabzonspor to attend to the second league. After this stressful situation Ulvi Yenal (The body training general manager of that time) declared that these two clubs wouldn’t be taken to the second league if they didn’t got unified. This was a shock in Trabzon and in these clubs. Trabzon would not be able to be represented in Turkish National Leagues if these teams couldn’t manage to unify. After the intense meetings and debates in Trabzon, on 2 August 1967 unification was successful. Trabzonspor was founded with the attendance of Idmanocagi, Idmangucu, Karadenizgucu and Martospor.
After the official declaration it was time to determine the colors of Trabzonspor. It was not easy to find colors. Yellow-red and Green-white were the dominant colors in Trabzon football. So the colors could not be one of those. The search began to find colors which would represent Trabzon and Karadeniz. It was planned to open a contest for the colors but then it was cancelled. Four meetings to determine the colours were out of result and the pressure was high for the fifth meeting, local people were also impatient about result. Finally Hamsi
AnchovyThe anchovies are a family of small, common salt-water forage fish. There are about 140 species in 16 genera, found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Anchovies are usually classified as an oily fish.-Description:...
was the focus. The silvery blue of Hamsi and the ruby red of its eyes were taken central. Because Idmanocagi has a color of red, to be fair The ruby red was consciously held darker.So the color debate for a week has finalized into the color for trabzonspor as Ruby red and Blue.
Early years
Featuring many of the players that played for the local teams and joined together to form Trabzonspor, the early years were particularly successful. In the season 1973/74, Trabzonspor were promoted to the Turkish Premier Super League.
In a nine year period from the season 1975/76, Trabzonspor managed to win the league six times, and the Turkish Cup three times. In the seasons they didn't finish first, they came second. Some of the most successful names in Turkish football history can be found in the Trabzonspor team of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Şenol GüneşŞenol Güneş is a former Turkish footballer, and now a manager.He began his career at Erdoğdu Gençlik, playing as a goalkeeper. He later moved onto the Trabzonspor amateur team, and began playing for the senior team soon after. He played for Trabzonspor for nine years, between 1975 and 1987...
, Aydin Karbuz,
Turgay SemercioğluTurgay Semercioğlu is a former Turkish footballer. He was a very successful player, playing for Trabzonspor and the Turkey national football team....
,
Necmi PerekliNecmi Perekli is a former Turkish footballer.Necmi played for Trabzonspor in the late 1970s, becoming the first player from the club to end the season as the gol kralı , the top scorer in Turkey. He scored 18 goals in 22 appearances in the 1976-77 season, helping them to retain the title they had...
, and Ali Kemal Denizci are some of the best remembered names from this period. Many of the Trabzonspor players at the time also represented the national team.
Later years
After the successful period of the late 70's and early 80's Trabzonspor became decidedly less successful. Some trace this back to the selling off of key players to the bigger
IstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
clubs and the poor record on transfers. The closest Trabzonspor came to winning the championship was in
1995-96-League Standings:-References:*...
, when they were on course to win the championship, until a home defeat by Fenerbahçe ruined the dream of reclaiming the title. The increasing reliance of the bigger teams on money from satellite coverage and income from fans and
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an games meant that Trabzonspor was falling behind the bigger Istanbul teams in terms of its ability to buy better players and attract bigger crowds. However, the concentration on local players and carefully scouted foreign players has started to show a marked improvement over the days of the late 1990s, when the club was known for an extremely high turnover of players that contributed to its lack of success. In
2003-04Super Lig 2003-04 was the 46th league, and the third Super Lig. Fenerbahce SK won their 15th title, being 4 points ahead Trabzonspor. An extremely dramatical final fixture took place, because in the relegation places, there were four teams. Bursaspor, with 37 points, Istanbulspor with 38, Rizespor...
the club finished second, pushing Fenerbahçe until the penultimate week, when a home defeat to Galatasaray ended their challenge. However, they have still managed to win the Turkish Cup on several occasions. The recent triumphs in 2003 and 2004 show that Trabzonspor still has the talent to win trophies. The recent improvement of the team shows that Trabzonspor now has several members of the national team in its playing squad, as well as at least four international footballers who represent their respective countries.
Achievements
- Turkish Super League:
- Winners (6): 1975-76, 1976-77, 1978-79, 1979-80, 1980-81, 1983-84
- Runners-up (7):1977-78, 1981-82, 1982-83, 1994-95, 1995-96, 2003-04, 2004-05
- Third (7): 1984-85,1989-90, 1990-91, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1997-98, 2008-09
- Turkish Cup:
- Winners (7): 1976-77,
- Runners-up (3): 1984-85,
- President Cup:
- Winners (7): 1976,
- Runners-up (3): 1981, 1984,
- Chancellor Cup
The Chancellor Cup is a defunct football competition in Turkey. It began in 1944 as a match between the winner of the Amateur Leagues and Milli Küme . It ran as a Milli Küme tournament until 1966....
:
- Winners (5): 1975-76, 1977-78,
- Runners-up (6): 1974-75,
Supporters
Although a large part of Trabzonspor's support is drawn from the local Trabzon population, they remain immensely well supported in the rest of Turkey. This is mainly due to their being the only team to break the Istanbul teams domination of the league.
They have supporting groups such as Gubertci Gencler, Cilginlar, Affetmezler, Farozlular. These groups often receive free tickets to Trabzonspor's games and they also have many people involved in the group, which helps Trabzonspor to have more suppourt from true fanatic supporters.
Current squad
Out on loan
Women's team
Trobzonspor women's team was formed in 2007 and was qualified to participate in the 2007-08 Turkish Women's League. The team gained the champion's title already in the second season of the national league, in the 2008-09 Turkish Women's Premier League. Trabzonspor women's team was entitled to compete in the 2009-10 UEFA Champions League, however it lost in the preliminary qualifying round.
Youth academy
Trabzonspor is especially renowned for the quality of players produced through its youth ranks. In the 2004/05 season Trabzonspor featured no less than four Turkey internationals who had been raised through the youth teams. These were
Gökdeniz KaradenizGökdeniz Karadeniz is a Turkish football player for the team Rubin Kazan. He is also a member of the Turkish national team.- Trabzonspor :...
,
Fatih TekkeFatih Tekke is a Turkish football player. He is a Turkish international, a striker, and one of the most recognisable and popular sportsmen in Turkey today. Having spent most of his career at Trabzonspor, he transferred to Russian team Zenit St...
,
Hüseyin ÇimşirHüseyin Çimşir was born on May 26, 1979 in Araklı, Trabzon. He is a famous footballer currently playing for Bursaspor in Turkey.Hüseyin has spent most of his career at Trabzonspor, but has also had short spells at Sakaryaspor and Antalyaspor. He is a Turkish international and was the captain at...
,
Mehmet YilmazMehmet Yılmaz is a Turkish footballer who plays for Eskişehirspor in the Turkish Süper Lig.-Club career:Yılmaz previously played for B.B. Ankaraspor, Trabzonspor and Denizlispor, where he spent the second half of the 2005-2006 season on loan...
,
Barış MemişBarış Memiş, born on Jan 5, 1990 in Turkey, is a Turkish football player who currently plays for Trabzonspor as attacking midfielder. His natural position is attacking midfield,he can play on both wing and forward....
and
Göksu AlhasGöksu Alhas, born on Mar 21, 1990 in Turkey, is a Turkish football player who currently plays for Trabzonspor as midfielder. He can play various positions, including right back, attacking midfielder and second striker....
.
External links