Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (Galatasaray Sports Club), usually referred to as Galatasaray, is a Turkish professional football club based in Istanbul. It is the association football branch of the larger Galatasaray Sports Club of the same name, itself a part of the Galatasaray Community Cooperation Committee which includes Galatasaray High School, where the football club was founded in 1905, consisting entirely of students. The team plays in dark shades of red and yellow at home, with the shirts split down the middle between the two colours.

Galatasaray is one of three teams to have participated in all seasons of the Süper Lig since 1959, following the dissolution of the Istanbul Football League. Galatasaray has the most Süper Lig (26), Turkish Cup (19) and Turkish Super Cup (17) titles in Turkey. Galatasaray is the most successful Turkish club in European competitions. Galatasaray won the UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup in 2000, becoming the only Turkish team to win a major UEFA competition. In the 1999–2000 season, the club achieved the rare feat of completing a treble by winning the Süper Lig, Turkish Cup, and UEFA Cup in a single season. In the UEFA Champions League, Galatasaray has reached the quarter-finals several times and the semi-finals of Club Champions Cup once. Galatasaray is the only Turkish club to have been ranked first on the IFFHS World Rankings. According to IFFHS, Galatasaray is the most successful Turkish club of the 20th century, and the 20th most successful club in Europe. As of 2026, they are 2nd in the UEFA coefficient rankings among Turkish teams.

Since 2011, the club's stadium has been the 53,387-capacity Rams Park in the Seyrantepe district of Istanbul. Previously, the club played at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium, as well as a succession of other stadium in Istanbul, which included stadium shares with Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe at the Taksim Stadium and İnönü Stadium.

The club has a long-standing rivalry with other Istanbul teams, namely Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe. The derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe is dubbed the Kıtalar Arası Derbi () due to the location of their stadiums on the European (Galatasaray) and Asian (Fenerbahçe) sides of the Bosphorus strait.

History

Galatasaray SK was founded in October 1905 (the exact day is disputed, but is traditionally accepted as "30 October 1905" according to the Gregorian calendar) by Ali Sami Yen and other students of Galatasaray High School (a high school in Istanbul which was established in 1481) as a football club. Ali Sami Yen became Galatasaray SK's first president and was given the club's membership number "1". The team's first match was against Cadi-Keuy FC and Galatasaray won this match with a score of 2–0. There were discussions about the club's name, in which some suggested Gloria (victory) and others Audace (courage), but it was decided that its name would be Galatasaray.

In addition to Ali Sami Yen (Club member No. 1), who was the driving force behind the club's foundation, Asim Tevfik Sonumut (2), Emin Bülent Serdaroğlu (3), Celal İbrahim (4), Boris Nikolov (5), Milo Bakić (6), Pavle Bakić (7), Bekir Sıtkı Bircan (8), Tahsin Nihat (9), Reşat Şirvanizade (10), Hüseyin Hüsnü (11), Refik Cevdet Kalpakçıoğlu (12) and Abidin Daver (13) were also involved in the decision to organize such a club.

The name Galatasaray itself comes from that of Galatasaray High School, which in turn takes its name from Galata Sarayı Enderûn-u Hümâyûn (Galata Palace Imperial School), the name of the original school founded on the site in 1481, and which in turn took its name from the nearby medieval Genoese citadel of Galata (the modern quarter of Karaköy) in the Beyoğlu (Pera) district of Istanbul. Galatasaray literally means "Galata palace".

According to researcher Cem Atabeyoğlu, Galatasaray took its name from one of its first matches. In that match, Galatasaray won 2–0 over a local Greek club, and the spectators called them "Galata Sarayı efendileri" (English: "Gentlemen of Galata Palace"), and, after this incident, they adopted that name and started to call their club "Galata Sarayı". In 1905, during the era of the Ottoman Empire, there were no laws for associations so the club could not be registered officially, but, after the 1912 Law of Association, the club registered legally.

Since there weren't any other Turkish teams, Galatasaray joined the Istanbul League that was consisting of English and Greek teams in the season of 1905–1906. With their first championship title they won in 1908–1909, they heralded the beginning of Turkish football history.

While football in Turkey began to fully develop, Galatasaray won ten more Istanbul League titles until 1952. Upon the initiation of professional football in 1952, the first professional but non-national league of Turkey, Istanbul Professional League, was played between 1952 and 1959. Galatasaray won three of these seven titles.

Türkiye Profesyonel 1. Ligi (Turkish Super League today) formed in 1959. This is the top-flight professional league in Turkish nationwide football, and the most popular sporting competition in the country. Galatasaray joined all seasons and won 25 league titles since then.

The Turkish Football Federation began organizing the Turkish Cup in the 1962–63 season for Turkish clubs to qualify for the UEFA competitions. This is the only national cup competition in Turkey. Galatasaray joined all seasons and won 16 trophies since then.

Historically, one of the clubs biggest achievements came in the 1986–1987 season where they won national championships in 15 different sport branches. Another achievement in this period was reaching the semi-final of the Champions League in the 1988–89 season making Galatasaray the first and only Turkish team to have played a semi-final in this competition.

Galatasaray's most successful era came in the late 1990s, when the club become the first and only Turkish football club to win a major UEFA competition with 1999–2000 UEFA Cup. They were aided in this by one of Turkey's best generation of homegrown footballers who went on to finish third in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, after having played in the quarter-finals of UEFA Euro 2000. Besides the talented local players, the home stadium of Ali Sami Yen Stadium created a huge advantage, as it was literally dubbed "Hell" by media and the visitors due to the intimidating atmosphere provided by the fans including chants and riots in the crowds.

There are many successful footballers who have played for Galatasaray and made their mark on Turkish football history. The team's legendary players include Nihat Bekdik nicknamed Aslan (Lion); the 1930s national hero Eşfak Aykaç; Boduri who died aged 21; Mehmet Leblebi who scored a domestic record of 14 goals in a single match; Gündüz Kılıç nicknamed Baba (Father) who was the coach but also the player of his team in the 1950s, with great success in both duties;

Bülent-Reha Eken brothers; Suat Mamat who scored three goals in the 1954 FIFA World Cup; Coşkun Özarı who devoted his life to Galatasaray; Turgay Şeren the heroic goalkeeper who was called "the Panther of Berlin" for his national duties; Fatih Terim, the team captain of Galatasaray and the Turkish national football team for many years, who won the UEFA Cup in 2000 as the Galatasaray's coach; Metin Oktay the legendary six-time top-scorer of the Turkish Super League; Hakan Şükür, the player who scored most goals in Süper Lig history with 249; Zoran Simović, another skilled goalkeeper known for his penalty saves; Cüneyt Tanman who played a record of 342 games for Galatasaray; Tanju Çolak, an extraordinary goalscorer and the 1988 European Golden Boot winner with Galatasaray; Cevad Prekazi, an Albanian specializing in free kicks; Cláudio Taffarel the World Cup-winning goalkeeper for Brazil; Gheorghe Hagi, the Romanian international who is still described by some as the best foreign player ever to play in Turkey; Brazilian striker Mário Jardel, dubbed "Super Mário" by the fans and scored both of Galatasaray's two goals in the 2000 UEFA Super Cup match against Real Madrid, along with the man of the match Okan Buruk who is the current coach.

Name and pronunciation Galatasaray () is a quarter in Karaköy in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn. Its name comes from that of Galata, which may in turn have derived from Galatai (meaning the "Galatians"), as the Celtic tribes were thought to have camped at Galata during the Hellenistic period before settling in Galatia in central Anatolia. Galatasaray translates directly as "Galata Palace" (saray means "palace" in Turkish). Galatasaray High School, established in the area in 1481, was the progenitor of Galatasaray S.K. as well as other institutions of Galatasaray Community.

Galatasaray is a compound word and is pronounced as such, with a very brief pause between the two words. There is no diminutive form of the club's name. Fans refer to the club either by its full name or by its nickname Cim-Bom(-Bom), pronounced: ). The person who brought this slogan to Turkey was Sabit Cinol. While Cinol was in Switzerland for education, he also played football. Inspired by the slogan of Servette, the club he played for, Cinol adapted this slogan for Galatasaray, and this adaptation was embraced by the club and the wider community. However, the shortened form "Gala" is sometimes used by English speakers.

Crest and colours

Galatasaray's first emblem was drawn by 333 [School Number] Şevki Ege. This was the figure of a spread-winged eagle with a football in its beak. The eagle was a model emblem that Galatasaray dwelled on in the beginning. But when the name did not attract too much interest, Şevki Ege's composition was pushed aside. It was replaced by the current design in the 1920s. This replaced in 1925 by the current "Ghayn-Sin" crest, which are the first two Arabic letters of "G"alata "S"aray, designed by Ayetullah Emin.

At first, the colours of Galatasaray were red and white, like the Turkish flag. On 6 December 1908, for a match against the football team of the Royal Navy cruiser , Galatasaray finally settled on playing in red and yellow, inspired by the roses which Gül Baba offered to Sultan Bayezid II. Ali Sami Yen stated, "After we have been in and out of several shops, we saw two different elegant-looking wool materials in Fatty Yanko's store at Bahçekapısı (between Eminönü and Sirkeci in Istanbul, now called Bahçekapı). One of them was quite dark red, resembling the cherry color, and the other a rich yellow with a touch of orange. When the sales clerk made the two fabrics fly together with a twist of his hand they became so bright that it reminded us the beauty of a goldfinch. We thought we were looking at the colors flickering in burning fire. We were picturing the yellow-red flames shining on our team and dreaming that it would take us to victories. Indeed it did."

Kit history

Home kit

The Galatasaray home kit has always been fundamentally the same since 1908. The traditional shirt of Galatasaray is the eight-piece halved design called "parçalı" (sectional). This consists of the shirt's front, back and sleeves being made up of two colours, resulting in the shirt being split into eight parts. (Two of the same colours are never next to each other within the 8 parts). The colours continue in an alternating order, from yellow to red. This results in the front of the shirt being the opposite of the back and the shirt also having an halved design from the side. This alternating colour order of eight parts creates a complete halved design for the shirt. The classic eight-piece halved design would become the iconic look of Galatasaray for years to come. The official colours are Pantone shades 1235 (yellow) and 201 (red).

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