Trabzonspor

Trabzonspor
	Logo of TrabzonsporLogo of Trabzonspor
Full name	Trabzonspor Kulübü
Nickname(s)	"Bordo-Mavililer" ("Bordeaux-Blues"); "Karadeniz Firtinasi" ("The Black Sea Storm")
Founded	1967
Ground	Hüseyin Avni Aker Stadyumu,; Trabzon, Turkey
Capacity	29,500
Chairman	Nuri Albayrak
Manager	Ziya Doğan
League	Turkcell Süper Lig
2006-07	Turkcell Süper Lig, 4th
Home colours	Away colours

Trabzonspor is a Turkish football club, from the Black Sea port city of Trabzon playing in the Turkish Premier Super League.

Trabzonspor was formed in 1967 in a merger of two local clubs. Many of the players from these teams became part of the team to win promotion to the top division, and helped Trabzonspor in their early years in the top flight. Along with three other Istanbul clubs known as the 'big three' (Galatasaray SK, Fenerbahçe SK, Beşiktaş J.K.), they are the only club to have won the Turkish title, earning a name as one of the "Big Four". Trabzonspor is as yet the only team from outside Istanbul to win it. Trabzonspor's nicknames are the "Bordeaux Blues" and the "Black Sea storm". Recently the team has created controversy on its behaviour towards its players after Mirosław Szymkowiak retired from football.[1]

History

At this time the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) had been encouraging local teams in the same city to merge into one, in order to ensure competitiveness in Turkish football. Trabzon had an extremely competitive league dating back to the 1920s, and there was little love between intense rivals who had been vying for the title for so long. The most intense rivalry was between the two most successful sides, Idmangücü and Idmanocaĝi. Ultimately it was these two teams which were responsible for the many delays before Trabzonspor was formed. When the TFF saw that they had no intention of joining together with the others, they were threatened with punishment. The last big hurdle was choosing the colours of the new club. After many disagreements, the colours of bordeaux and blue were chosen and Trabzonspor were formed.

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.

Nine years of success

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 Güneş, Turgay Semercioğlu, Necmi Perekli, 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 Istanbul clubs and the poor record on transfers. The closest Trabzonspor came to winning the championship was in 1995/96, 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 European games has meant that Trabzonspor has fallen 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 2003/04 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 has also meant 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.

European Arena

Trabzonspor saw some European success with coaches like Ozkan Sumer and Ahmet Suat Ozyazici beating the teams likes of Internazionale, Liverpool, and FC Barcelona. In the 2004-2005 season they were robbed of a place in the Champions League by Dinamo Kiev after a 2-0 loss while they won before 2-1 in Kiev. In the 2005-2006 they again failed to reach the Champions League after it lost out to minnows, Anorthosis Famagusta, in a heated 3rd Round qualifying match. This was a significant moment for Cypriot football due to the difference in size and wealth of the clubs (Cypriot football clubs have never lost a two legged tie to a Turkish club before).

Youth academy

Trabzonspor is especially renowned for the quality of players produced through its youth ranks. In the season 2004/05 Trabzonspor featured no less than four Turkey internationals who had been raised through the youth teams. These were Gökdeniz Karadeniz, Fatih Tekke, Hüseyin Çimşir, and Mehmet Yilmaz. This is more than any other team in Turkey, and is nearly as successful as the most productive European academies.

Support

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.

Current Squad

Turkish clubs are limited to six players without Turkish citizenship. This squad list includes only the principal nationality of each player.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	BRA	Jefferson de Oliveira Galvão
4	DF	TUR	Çağdaş Atan
5	MF	TUR	Hüseyin Çimşir
6	MF	TUR	Hasan Üçüncü
10	FW	TUR	Umut Bulut
11	MF	GUI	Ibrahima Yattara
12	MF	EGY	Ayman Abdelaziz
13	DF	TUR	Ufukhan Bayraktar
14	MF	NED	Kiki Musampa
16	MF	TUR	Musa Büyük
20	MF	TUR	Ceyhun Eriş


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
23	MF	TUR	Enis Kahraman
28	FW	TUR	Ersen Martin
29	GK	TUR	Tolga Zengin
32	MF	TUR	Mustafa Keçeli
33	DF	SWE	Fredrik Risp
38	DF	TUR	Erdinç Yavuz
55	DF	SRB	Milan Stepanov
61	MF	TUR	Gökdeniz Karadeniz
77	GK	TUR	Ahmet Şahin
85	DF	TUR	Ferhat Çökmüş
88	FW	TUR	Ömer Rıza
99	MF	TUR	Celaleddin Koçak

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
--	DF	TUR	Tayfun Çora (at Kayserispor until June 2007.)
--	FW	CZE	Tomas Jun at Sparta Prague until June 2007.
--	MF	MNE	Ardian Gjokaj at B.B. Ankaraspor until June 2007.
--	FW	TUR	Ergin Keleş at Sakaryaspor until June 2007.
--	MF	TUR	Feridun Sungur at Samsunspor until June 2008.
--	DF	TUR	Murat Ocak at Ankaragucu until June 2007.

For recent transfers, see the "Transfer Deals" section of 2006-07 in Turkish football.

Achievements

Turkish Premier 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