Beşiktaş J.K.

Beşiktaş JK
Full name	Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü
Nickname(s)	Kara Kartallar (The Black Eagles)
Founded	1903
Ground	İnönü Stadyumu,; Istanbul, Turkey
Capacity	32,145
Chairman	Yıldırım Demirören
Manager	Jean Tigana
League	Turkish Premier Super League
2005-06	Turkish Premier Super League, 3rd
Home colours	Away colours

Beşiktaş JK is a Turkish sports club from İstanbul, which professionally participates in many branches such as basketball, volleyball, handball etc. They play their football matches at İnönü Stadyumu, located by the Bosphorus, near the Dolmabahçe Palace. [1]

Great football legend Pele admitted that he is a Besiktas fan. [2]

Achievements

Turkish Premier Super League (12): 1958, 1959, 1960, 1966, 1967, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 2003
Turkish Cup (6): 1975, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2006
Turkish Super Cup (1): 2006
UEFA Champions League: Quarter-final in 1987
UEFA Cup: Quarter-final in 2003

History

The first branches of the club were wrestling, boxing, weight-lifting and a variety of gymnastics branches.

The monarchical rules were relaxed with the declaration of Mesrutiyet (constitutional monarchy) on July 23, 1908. A law allowing the foundation of sport clubs passed on August 3, 1909.

Finally, the club was officially registered on January 20, 1910 under the name of "Beşiktaş Ottoman Gymnastics Club", and Şükrü Pasha took over the presidency of Besiktas. In this way, Besiktas became the first officially registered Turkish sports club.

Football and Besiktas

Some of the young patriots from the neighborhood Beşiktaş in Istanbul formed two Football clubs called "Valideçeşme" and "Basiret", under the leadership of Şeref Bey. They were not members of Beşiktaş Gymnastics Club. One day they came together and Seref Bey said: "Beşiktaş Ottoman Gymnastics Club is the strongest and biggest club of Beşiktaş. If we want to think big, we should come together under Beşiktaş Ottoman Gymnastics Club."

Hence "Valideçeşme" and "Basiret" Football clubs joined Beşiktaş Ottoman Gymnastics Club in 1911. In a very short time, Football became the foremost branch in the club.

Nickname

It was the last week of the season of 1932-1933 in Istanbul Amateur League, and the final match was between Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş. Fenerbahçe were the league leaders, and Beşiktaş had trailed by 2 points.

Şeref Bey, who brought Football to Beşiktaş, died just one day before this derby match. The match was on June 16, 1933, and it was a very close call: either Beşiktaş or Fenerbahçe were going to be the champions. Before the match, there was an air of mourning in the Beşiktaş locker room . Suddenly Hakki Yeten, one of the players, stood up and said to his teammates "If Şeref Bey were alive, he would want us to win this match." This charged the team up. It was the first time Beşiktaş were playing in a black uniform to express their sorrow after Şeref Bey's death . The match started. Fenerbahçe mostly preferred a defensive strategy, playing for a draw and Beşiktaş preferred an offensive strategy. On the 24th minute, Nazim scored a goal for Beşiktaş, and the fans of Besiktas started cheering, but the referee cancelled the goal calling it offside. Most of the game was played in the Fenerbahçe's half. Beşiktaş attacked 66 times in 90 minutes. But the match ended in a goalless draw, securing Fenerbahçe's title. Despite the draw, everyone was talking about the great performance:

-What a team it was!

-They attacked like eagles.

-Yes. They were like black eagles...

Despite the fact that on that day Beşiktaş failed to win the championship, they won something more important than that, the nickname of "The Black Eagles".

Colours

When Beşiktaş was founded, the club colours were red and white, the colours of the Turkish flag. After the Balkan Wars in 1912-1913, the Ottoman Empire lost most of its territories in the Balkans, and casualties included some of the sportsmen of the club.

Beşiktaş substituted the red in their kits with black to commemorate the losses in the war with the intention to change back upon reacquistion of the land. Because the Ottomans were never able to conquer back the lost territories, club colours have remained black and white since then.

The Emblem

The emblem of Beşiktaş symbolizes the foundation date. There are two white and three black bars on the emblem. It consists of nine parts in total. There is one white bar, three black bars, and another white bar, and there are nine parts in total. Thus: 1319, the year of the club's foundation. (The Islamic calendar was still used in the Ottoman Empire at the time of the club's foundation. 1319 is the equivalent of 1903 in Gregorian Calendar.)

The Turkish flag which appears in Beşiktaş' emblem is the result of a gift from the Turkish Football Federation. Beşiktaş earned the right to incorporate the flag after they played against the Greek national team as Turkish national team on May 16, 1952.

Squad

Current Squad

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

As of 21 August, 2006:

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	CRO	Vedran Runje
2	MF	TUR	Serdar Kurtulus
3	DF	TUR	Mehmet Sedef
4	DF	TUR	Mustafa Doğan
5	DF	TUR	Gökhan Zan
7	MF	TUR	Burak Yilmaz
8	DF	TUR	Baki Mercimek
10	MF	ARG	Matias Emilio Delgado
11	FW	TUR	Mert Nobre
13	FW	BRA	Bobo
15	MF	BRA	Jose Kleberson
16	MF	TUR	Aydın Karabulut
19	DF	TUR	İbrahim Üzülmez


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
21	GK	TUR	Ramazan Kurşunlu (on loan to Diyarbakırspor)
22	MF	TUR	Ali Tandoğan
23	MF	TUR	Riza Sen
24	FW	TUR	Gokhan Gulec
27	GK	TUR	Volkan Ünlü
29	GK	TUR	Murat Şahin
30	DF	TUR	Ali Güneş
41	MF	TUR	Mustafa Koray Avcı
55	MF	TUR	İbrahim Akın
58	DF	TUR	İbrahim Toraman
88	FW	TUR	Kenan Ozer
TBD	MF	TUR	Fahri Tatan
TBD	MF	BRA	Ricardinho