Galatasaray - Club Snapshot - one of Turkey's premier soccer clubs - Brief Article

Soccer Digest, Feb-March, 2002 by Scott Plagenhoef

* Yugoslavia's Vlodo Nikolovski, who played for Gala in the 1966-67 season, was the first foreigner to join the club. In recent years stars such as Brazil's Mario Jardel and Taffarel and Romania's Adrian Ilie and Gheorghe Popescu have starred for the team.

* Galatasaray has earned the Turkish Premier League Cup 14 times. Entering 2001, they are tied with Fenerbache for the most titles.

* Galatasaray's home town, Istanbul, is also host to the country's other two main clubs, Fenerbache and Bestikas.

* The Galatasaray sports club owns one of the islands in the Bosphorus strait.

* Known as the Lions, Gala has produced the three greatest post-War players in Turkish soccer: Metin Oktay, a star in the 1970s, Tanju Colak, Europe's Golden Boot winner in 1988, and Hakan Sukur, who led Turkey to Euro 1996.

* Gala was the first Turkish team to play abroad, traveling to Transylvania during the Balkan Wars (1912-13) to play Kalosvar (now Universitatea ClujNapoca of the Romanian Second Division).

* Gala plays its home games at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium, affectionately referred to by Lions fans as "Hell."

* The club's name is believed to originate from "Galata Sarayi," or the Palace of Galata. Other names considered for the club included "Gloria" (glory) and "Audace" (courage).

* For the club's original administrators, hard work paid off. Cevdet Kalpakciogulu was chosen as the assistant president because he had made the effort to wash the uniforms. The club's first president, Ali Sami Yen, was appointed because he was the oiling and inflating the team's lone soccer ball. His presidency was secured when he patched the ball with a piece cut from his shoe.