As it seems there is a dearth of quality English writing – or quality Turkish writing – about Turkish football available on the web, I have decided to fill the void. While I may entertain fictitious beliefs about the actual quality of my writing, I don’t particularly care about such delusions and all I care about in these entries are football. I suppose I should preface this entire series by pointing out that I am a passionate Fenerbahce supporter… but my passion for Turkish football should overcome any inherent biases. Now, let’s get cooking.
A quick overview of Turkish football and the last season is in order. There are three big clubs in Turkiye and they are all based in Istanbul. Perhaps the best known in Europe, by virtue of an excellent side around the turn of the century, is Galatasaray and their yellow-and-red striped kits. Perhaps the best supported and certainly the richest is Fenerbahçe with their yellow-and-blue striped kits. The two have won the same number of league titles. The third team in popularity but not so far behind in success is the black-and-white striped Beşiktaş. Among the Anatolian sides, Trabzonspor is the biggest club and Kayserispor has had a good run of recent success. Last season, Galatasaray won the title with a closer-than-it-looks six-point cushion. Fener, Beşiktaş and surprise package Sivasspor all finished level on points but a complicated tie-breaking system saw the first in the Champion’s League, the second in the UEFA Cup and the last cursing their luck. Kayserispor booked their ticket to the UEFA Cup by winning the Turkish Cup.
The start of the season has greeted Fener and Galatasaray with mixed fortunes. Let’s begin with the defending champions because I’m such an unbiased reviewer. A busy transfer season saw the arrival of Fernando Meira – an excellent buy at five million euros – and some reserve goalkeeper on loan. Ill-advised expenditures include the purchases of Australian Harry Kewell, a regular on the injured list , and Czech dwarf striker Milan Baros, sure to disappoint yet another club after everyone thought he was so great in a few games about five years ago. Other than the new arrivals, the team’s core is made up of young Turkish stars who participated in the Euro tournament with great aplomb and the mercurial Brazilian Lincoln. I read in unrelated context today that mercurial usually means piss-poor and that isn’t too far from the truth as regards Lincoln. Once a great player, he is now a whining sourpuss who might give you five good minutes in a game.
The season began well for Galatasaray with a victory in the Turkish Super Cup over Kayserispor but soon began to fall apart with a pathetic display in the Champions League quarterfinals. It took an extraordinary effort simply to level the tie against Romanian runners-up Steaua Bucharest in their home game. Nothing doing in the second leg and now Galatasaray must miss the Champions League group stages yet again. Their start to the league campaign has been a little better with four points in the first two matches, including a difficult draw away to Kayserispor. Harry Kewell has been knocking in goals which is encouraging except for the fact that he’ll get hurt soon.
Fenerbahçe also welcomed a number of high-profile signings. Luis Aragones, fresh off leading Spain to the Euro title, takes over the manager hot-seat after Zico was unceremoniously dumped. He brought last year’s La Liga top scorer Daniel Guiza with him, hopefully filling the need for a striker that can cause damage in Europe. Holding midfielder Mehmet Aurelio went to Spain and left a hole that was rumored at one point to be filled by Xabi Alonso or Marcos Senna but has instead lured unknown quanitity Josico to Istanbul. Emre Belözoğlu – after an interesting experience in England, where he shined for a season then endured charges of racism and endless injuries – arrives as an odd signing but one that fills the back pages. Burak Yılmaz, a pacy winger, will hope to revive his career on the right flank.
Fenerbahçe had to plow through two qualifying rounds to make the Champions League group stages and plow they did, although the final round against Partizan Belgrade was a closer shave than comfort dictates. A group with Arsenal, Porto and Dynamo Kiev is difficult but fans except nothing less than another march to the quarterfinals. They are the only Turkish representative this year, which is disappointing for Turkish football and a huge stain on Galatasaray’s season already. The league campaign has been poor thus far for Fener, with a loss away to Gaziantepspor and an indifferent win against Istanbulspor with the goals coming after two red cards for the bad guys. Aragones will need a better performance from his team to see his side win the title and for him to keep his job.
Beşiktaş have played third fiddle for several seasons but the gods may favor them with a revival. Last season, they seemed to be out of the picture but finished strong and ended level on points with Fener. Their Champions League campaign last year bore the ugly scar of a 8-0 pounding by Liverpool but even with that unsightly abomination they had a good chance of making it to the knock-out stages. The offseason didn’t bring any big-name arrivals but did see a strange bust-up between the two Ibrahims. Ibrahim Üzülmez and Ibrahim Toraman, two iconic defenders at the club, had a fight over, if I remember correctly, sandals. For some time they were on the for sale list but now they’re back after supposedly making peace. Despite a lack of big names, Beşiktaş have a strong squad and a surplus of solid, albeit not outstanding, footballers, many of them foreigners – Tello, Delgado, Bobo, Holosko, Cisse, etc. Two wins out of two to begin the season – albeit against inferior quality in Antalyaspor and Konyaspor – mean the Black Eagles top the table and portend happier endings this year.
Joining Beşiktaş at the top is Trabzonspor, who have been wallowing in mid-table misery for the past few seasons. The Black Sea club is the only Turkish club outside of the three big Istanbul teams to have won the league title but the last one was 25 years ago. Expectations are always high, however, and this year the burgundy-and-blue team have as good a shot as they have had in some time. The arrival of proven goalscorer Gökhan Ünal from Kayserispor was a major transfer coup and their starting eleven is strong enough to challenge for the title. Unfortunately, too much depends on the mentally unstable playmaker Ibrahim Yattara and the squad depth may not last over the course of thirty-some matches.
Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe, Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor are the only clubs with a reasonable chance of winning the title but plenty of Anatolian teams should push them and make life difficult. Gaziantepspor, always a tough opponent, have already tripped up Fener and also have a perfect record after two matches. Kayserispor will finish in that fourth or fifth spot as usual and take a few scalps along the way. Sivasspor may not repeat the success of last year but a more-or-less unchanged squad will not be easily beaten. Quality is harder to find in the lower half of the league but that can be said of just about any league in Europe. More disappointing is the lack of teams from eastern Turkiye. The Istanbul clubs will be happy about that – it’s a long haul to the east – but sadly deprives a large portion of the country of live top-flight football. In any case, my tears should dry quickly as this should be a cracker of a season. Who’ll win the title? Well, most pundits will side, as usual, with Fener or Galatasaray. My dad says watch out for Trabzon and I say watch out for Beşiktaş – which happens to be my dad’s team, a strange choice indeed. But at the end of the day, my blood runs blue and yellow: Fenerbahçe will lift their record eighteenth title.
