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Galatasaray Spor Kulübü, also known simply as Galatasaray, is a Turkish football club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul. It is the association football branch of the larger Galatasaray Sports Club, itself a part of the Galatasaray Community Cooperation Committee which includes the prestigious Lycée de Galatasaray, where the football club was founded in October 1905 consisting entirely of student members.

Galatasaray is the most successful Turkish football club. They have won 21 Süper Lig titles, 17 Turkish Cups and 15 Turkish Super Cups. It 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, and are the only club to have won the Süper Lig in four successive seasons.

Internationally, Galatasaray has won the UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup in 2000, becoming the first and only Turkish team to win a major UEFA competition. In the 1999-2000 season, the club achieved the rare feat of completing a quadruple by winning the Süper Lig, the Turkish Cup, the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup in a single season. Galatasaray is also the only Turkish club to have been ranked first on the IFFHS World Rankings.

Since 2011, the club's stadium is the 52,332-capacity Türk Telekom Stadium in Seyrantepe, Istanbul. Previously, the club had played at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium, as well as a succession of other grounds in Istanbul, which included groundshares with Besiktas and Fenerbahçe at the Taksim Stadium and Inönü Stadium.

The club has a long-standing rivalry with other major Istanbul teams, namely with Besiktas and Fenerbahçe. The derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe is dubbed the Kitalar Arasi Derbi (English: Intercontinental Derby) due to the location of their headquarters and stadiums on the European (Galatasaray) and Asian (Fenerbahçe) sides of the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul.

As a result of the team's 20th championship for the 2014-15 Süper Lig season, their logo hereafter contains four stars representing their 20 championships for the league; each star corresponds to five of the team's championships.

The name Galatasaray itself comes from that of Galatasaray High School, which took its name from Galata Sarayi 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 Beyoglu (Pera) district of Istanbul. Thus Galatasaray literally means "Galata Palace". "Galatasaray" is a compound word and it 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) of uncertain etymology. However, the shortened form "Gala" is sometimes used by English speakers.

Galatasaray's first emblem was drawn by 333 [School Number] Sevki 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, Sevki 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. These are the colours in the modern Turkish flag. The Turkish Republic, however, was not founded at that time. Therefore, this decision caused the repressive administration of the day to feel uncomfortable and the administration subsequently pressured the footballers. For this reason, on December 26, 1906 the colors were changed to yellow and black,. The eight-piece halved design kit was ordered from the Sports Outfitter William Shillcock based in Birmingham, United Kingdom. After a heavy 0-5 lost to Baltalimani in a friendly match the new colours yellow and black were counted as inauspicious.

On 6 December 1908, for a match against the football team of the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Barham's crewmen, 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 Bahçekapisi (between Eminönü and Sirkeci in Istanbul, now called Bahçekapi). 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."

The Galatasaray home kit have always been fundamentally the same since 1908. The traditional shirt of Galatasaray is the eight-piece halved design. 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 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 look of Galatasaray for around 80 years, until 1985 when sportswear manufacturer Adidas began to provide the shirts and the sleeves were made up by one colour and not halved. Created over a century ago, the classic Galatasaray kit combination consists of the eight-piece halved traditional shirt, white shorts and red socks and are usually worn as part of the home strp. This changed in the mid-1980s, when sportswear manufacturer Adidas began to provide the shirts. The club reverted to the "classic" kit in 2012. The official colours are Pantone shades 1235 (yellow) and 201 (red).

When Galatasaray were formed no Turkish teams had their own home ground, and all games in the Istanbul Football League took place at Papazin Çayiri - now the site of Fenerbahçe's Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium. In 1921 the city's first proper football stadium was constructed, Taksim Stadium, which was used as the home ground for all of Istanbul's teams. When historic Taksim Stadium was demolished in 1940, Galatasaray decided to build a large, modern stadium. Due to difficulties stemming from World War II, construction was delayed for over two decades. In this period, they played in Seref Stadi and Dolmabahçe Stadi On 20 December 1964, Ali Sami Yen Stadium opened. Named after the founder of Galatasaray, Ali Sami Yen, it is in the Mecidiyeköy quarter of the Sisli district at the center of the city. In 1964, the stadium had capacity over 35,000. Due to improvements in security and prohibition of non-seater spectators, the all-seater capacity reduced to 22,000 in 1993. A few years later, the rebuilt of main stand, which was damaged by an earthquake, slightly increased the capacity. After 2002, when Atatürk Olympic Stadium was built for Istanbul's Olympic Games bid, Galatasaray started to play European Cup matches there. The attendance record among Turkish stadiums was broken there, in Galatasaray-Olympiacos match played in front of 79,414 spectators. Yet, Ali Sami Yen Stadium has historic importance for Galatasaray fans although it is smaller and older. In 2011, the stadium demolished after Galatsaray moved to the newly built Türk Telekom Stadium.

The new home ground of Galatasaray is the newly built Türk Telekom Stadium in the Seyrantepe area of Sariyer. The new stadium, which was opened 15 January 2011, has a capacity of 52,223 seats, making it the largest private stadium used by a club in Turkey.

Since 1992, after every goal scored by Galatasaray, the last part of the song "I Will Survive" by the Hermes House Band is played. Although the song is in English, the part used has no lyrics except "la la la la". In addition, before every game the Galatasaray War Chant, which is borrowed from the original Warchant created by Florida State University, is played accompanied by what the fans call a "scarf show" where fans display and wave their Galatasaray scarves, banners and flags. Many people[who?] call the Turk Telekom Stadium 'Cehennem' (hell) because of stadium anthems and the continuous roar of the fans.

Galatasaray fans attach high importance to European competitions, and Galatasaray is known as the Conqueror of Europe by their fans. This nickname underlines the importance of the UEFA Cup and Super Cup Galatasaray managed to win during the 1999-2000 season. Galatasaray fans also have a reputation in Europe as being one of the most fanatic in the world, along with ultrAslan. Ryan Giggs once said I've never experienced anything like Galatasaray. Three hours before kick-off, we went out to have a look at the pitch and the stadium was overcrowded! The chanting was brilliant: one side starts, then the other, then quiet, then all of them chanting! The players really enjoyed it. Before it was good, after it wasn't for us.'

Many people[who?] call the Turk Telekom Stadium &#39;Cehennem&#39; (hell) because of stadium anthems and the continuous roar of the fans.

The first and only Team to win the UEFA Cup in the Balkans.

The first and only Turkish team to win the UEFA Super Cup (21 August 2000).

Galatasaray fans broke the &quot;loudest crowd roar at a sport stadium&quot; record on 18 March 2011 at Galatasaray&#39;s new stadium Türk Telekom Stadium in Istanbul. A peak reading of 140.76 dBA was recorded.

Since 1992, after every goal scored by Galatasaray, the last part of the song &quot;I Will Survive&quot; by the Hermes House Band is played.

Founded in 1905, Galatasaray is the first Turkish football team (BJK was founded in 1903 and the first football formation took place in August 1911).

The first Team to receive a state supreme service medal (2000).

The first and only Turkish team to win the UEFA Cup (17 May 2000).

According to media polls since 1978, Galatasaray is the most popular team among football fans in Turkey. The latest poll by June 2012 places Galatasaray in the first place with a 41.8% level of popularity while Fenerbahçe S.K. comes second with a 35.9% level, Besiktas J.K. third with 16.3% and Trabzonspor fourth with 4.7%.

Galatasaray football academy trains children between seven and fifteen. They are located in 79 sites, in Turkey, Australia, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK.

The first Turkish team to rank first in the world ranking (IFFHS August 2000 ranking).

Trivia

Galatasaray S.K.

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