Galatasaray S.K.

Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, Galatasaray Sports Club), also known as Galatasaray AŞ or Gala in UEFA competitions, is a Turkish professional football club based on the European side of the city of 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 October 1905 consisting entirely of student members.

The team traditionally play in dark shades of red and yellow at home, with the shirts split down the middle between the two colours.

Galatasaray SK was founded in October 1905 (the exact day is disputed, but is traditionally accepted as "17 Teşrinievvel 1321" according to the Rumi calendar, which corresponds to "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.

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 also has accumulated the most Süper Lig (23), Turkish Cup (18) and Turkish Super Cup (16) titles in Turkey, thus making them the most decorated football club in Turkey, as those competitions are the top nationwide Turkish professional leagues and cups that are recognized and accounted for in accordance to the regulations set by the Turkish Football Federation and UEFA.

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 23 league titles since then.

The Turkish Football Federation began organizing the Turkish Cup (today it is organized with the name Ziraat 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.

Probably the greatest record that the club holds is winning national championships in 15 different sport branches in the 1986–87 season.

Another achievement in this period was reaching the semi-final of the European Cup 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.

In the 1999–2000 season, the club achieved the rare feat of completing a treble by winning the Süper Lig, the Turkish Cup, and the UEFA Cup in a single season.

Galatasaray is also the only Turkish club to have been ranked first on the IFFHS World Rankings.

According to the same international organization, Galatasaray is the best Turkish club of the 20th century, and the 20th most successful club in Europe.

Galatasaray is the most successful Turkish football club in history.

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.

Since 2011, the club's stadium is the 52,280-capacity Rams Park in Seyrantepe, Istanbul.

Previously, the club played at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium, as well as a succession of other grounds in Istanbul, which included groundshares with Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe at the Taksim Stadium and İnönü Stadium.

The club has a long-standing rivalry with Istanbul teams, namely with Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe.

The derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe is dubbed the Kıtalar Arası Derbi (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.

They have also won the Emirates Cup in 2013 in London.