İstanbulspor

İstanbulspor Kulübü is a Turkish football and sports club founded by Istanbul High School students in 1926. In 2004–05, they were relegated from the Turkish Süper Lig (Super League) to the TFF First League. For many decades, it was the fourth most famous and well-developed professional football club in Istanbul, coming after Beşiktaş, Galatasaray, and Fenerbahçe. After being bought by the Uzan family in 1990,^[2] it has been repossessed by the government and resold to third parties.

İstanbulspor

Full name	İstanbulspor Kulübü A.Ş.
Nickname(s)	Boğalar (Bulls) İstanbul'un Takımı (Istanbul's Team) Halkın Takımı (People's Team)
Founded	4 January 1926; 99 years ago (1926-01-04)[1]
Ground	Necmi Kadıoğlu Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey
Capacity	4,274
Chairman	Ecmel Faik Sarıalioğlu
Head coach	Mustafa Alper Avcı
League	TFF 1. Lig
2024–25	TFF 1. Lig, 4th of 20
Website	www.istanbulspor.com.tr
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

Their greatest success is the Turkish championship title won in 1932.^[3]

History

İstanbulspor was founded by Kemal Halim Gürgen, also known by his native Albanian name of Qemal Omari^[4][5][6][7] and Istanbul Boys High School students. It was founded on 4 January 1926, being one of the first sports clubs of the Turkish Republican period. In the 1931–32 season, İstanbulspor won both the Istanbul League and Turkish Football Championship.

A newspaper headline about the return of Turkish champions Istanbulspor to Istanbul on 22 October 1932

Until 1990, the club was managed by the Istanbul High School foundation. During this period, İstanbulspor has been relegated from and promoted to the top division several times. Also, it relegated to the amateur level in 1979 and played at the amateur level for two seasons. In 1984, club was relegated to third league. In 1990, Uzan Holding, led by Turkish businessman Cem Uzan, bought the club and converted it into İstanbulspor A.Ş., İstanbulspor incorporation. After that, Istanbulspor was funded by Uzan family and promoted back to first league in 1995. Istanbulspor became one of the most successful Turkish football clubs again, as they reached fourth place in the 1997–98 season and played in the UEFA Cup. Uzan family withdrew its support from İstanbulspor in 2001. Because of this, İstanbulspor fell into financial crisis and came ninth in the 2002–03 season.

Eventually, in 2003, the Turkish government took over the financially collapsed club. However, Istanbulspor were relegated to the second league in 2004–05. In 2006, İstanbulspor were resold by the government to former Turkish player Saffet Sancaklı's Marmara Spor Faaliyetleri San. ve Tic. A.Ş. for $3,250,000. In 2007, Ömer Sarıalioğlu, a Turkish businessman, bought the club from Saffet Sancaklı. İstanbulspor tried to avoid relegation at the last two seasons. İstanbulspor escaped from relegation in the 2008–09 season after finishing sixth in the Third Group. However, İstanbulspor finished the second group of the 2nd League next season as second from last and were finally relegated to the Third League, which is the fourth level of the Turkish football system. They played in the promotion play-offs in the 2012–13 and 2013–14 seasons but failed to achieve success. İstanbulspor finally promoted to the Second League after defeating Zonguldak Kömürspor and Çorum Belediyespor successively in promotion play-offs in the 2014–15 season.

Colours and crest

The colours of İstanbulspor are yellow and black, which are the colours of Istanbul High School. Also, white is accepted as a third colour, but this is not official. Having represented Turkey in an international competition, İstanbulspor was granted the privilege to use the Turkish flag in its emblem, located on the top left corner. The emblem of Istanbul High School is in the middle.

League participations

• Süper Lig (25): 1959–67, 1968–72, 1995–2005, 2022–24
• TFF First League (18): 1967–68, 1972–75, 1981–84, 1992–95, 2005–08, 2017–2022, 2024-
• TFF Second League (16): 1975–79, 1984–92, 2008–10, 2015–17
• TFF Third League (5): 2010–15
• Turkish Regional Amateur League (35): 1926–59, 1979–81

European history

As of 27 August 1998

Competition	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
UEFA Cup	2	1	0	1	4	4	0
UEFA Intertoto Cup	6	4	1	1	12	6	+6
Total	8	5	1	2	16	10	+6

UEFA Cup:

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1998–99	Q2	Argeș Pitești	4–2	0–2	4–4 (a)

UEFA Intertoto Cup:

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1997	Group Stage	Vasas	2–0	—	1st
		Werder Bremen	—	0–0
		Öster	3–2	—
		Universitāte Rīga	—	5–1
	Semi-final	Lyon	2–1	0–2	2–3

Honours

1931–32 Istanbul Football League champions

European competitions

• UEFA Intertoto Cup
  • Semi-finals (1): 1997

Domestic competitions

• Turkish Football Championship
  • Winners (1): 1932
• TFF First League
  • Winners (1): 1967–68
  • Runners-up (1): 1994–95
• TFF Second League
  • Winners (2): 1991–92, 2016–17
• TFF Third League
  • Winners (1): 2014–15

Regional competitions

• Istanbul Football League
  • Winners (1): 1931–32
• Istanbul Shield
  • Winners (1): 1931–32
• Istanbul 2. Football League
  • Winners (1): 1926–27

Others

• Spor Toto Cup
  • Winners (1): 1970–71
• TSYD Cup
  • Winners (2): 1996, 2000

Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors

Period	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor	Ref
1924-77	-	-
1977-78		Pereja	[8]
1978-81		-
1981-82		Arko
1982-83		Dokusan
1983-84		-
1984-85		Kazal
1985-88		-
1988-91		Emlak Bankası
1991-92	Adidas	Conti/Rowenta
1992-93	-
1993-94	Diadora	Seat
1994-95	Adidas	-
1995-96	Umbro	Lee
1996-2000		Telsim
2000-01	Umbro
2001-02	Umbro	Netbul
2002-03	Umbro
2003-04		-
2004-05	Le Coq Sportif	Turkcell
2023-24	Raru SPQOR

Club officials

Position	Name
Manager	Osman Zeki Korkmaz
Assistant Manager	Vural Önen
Goalkeeper Coach	Senih Yaban
Goalkeeper Coach	Yasin Çalışkan
Match Analyst	Eyüp Genç
Physiotherapist	İlhan Kafkas Altay Çetinkaya
Massur	Adnan Beyoğlu Recep Karaman
Nutritionist	Fatih Akdağ
Outfitter	Şenol Taşdemir Cihat Özdemir
Interpreter	Erol Kurt
General Manager	Gökhan Kaplan

Players

Current squad

As of 12 August, 2025^[9]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  TUR İsa Doğan 2 DF  TUR Yunus Bahadır 3 DF  TUR Duhan Aksu 4 DF  TUR Fatih Tultak 5 DF  NGA Michael Ologo 6 MF  LTU Modestas Vorobjovas 7 MF  GAB David Sambissa 9 FW  TUR Emir Kaan Gültekin (captain) 10 MF  KOS Florian Loshaj 11 MF  TUR Dijlan Aydın 17 MF  TUR Enver Sarıalioğlu 21 DF  ENG Demeaco Duhaney

No. Pos. Nation Player 28 GK  TUR Alp Tutar 30 FW  GAM Alieu Cham 31 FW  TUR Ertuğrul Sandıkcı 40 DF  TUR İzzet Erdal 44 MF  TUR Yusuf Özer 66 FW  SEN Mendy Mamadou 70 FW  TUR Şeref Özcan 77 FW  MKD Mario Krstovski 83 MF  AUT Isa Dayakli 84 DF  TUR Ali Şahin Yılmaz (on loan from Trabzonspor) 99 FW  TUR Mustafa Sol

Out on loan

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  TUR Tunahan Şamdanlı (at Çankayaspor until 30 June 2026)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  TUR Ahmet Can Özer (at Fatsa Belediyespor until 30 June 2026)

Retired numbers

See also: Retired numbers in association football

No.	Player	Nationality	Position	İstanbulspor debut	Last match	Ref
22	Zeki Çelik	Turkey	Right back	3 September 2016	4 May 2018	[10][11]

Notable players

Europe

Albania

• Kristal Abazaj
• Sindrit Guri

Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Aldin Čajić
• Fahrudin Omerović
• Elvir Bolić
• Elvir Baljić
• Hadis Zubanović
• Enes Demirović

Bulgaria

• Ivaylo Petkov
• Zdravko Zdravkov

France

• Jean-Michel Ferri

Kosovo

• Florian Loshaj
• Jetmir Topalli

Lithuania

• Modestas Vorobjovas

Netherlands

• John van den Brom
• Peter van Vossen

North Macedonia

• Valon Ethemi

Russia

• Oleg Salenko

Slovakia

• Marián Zeman

Turkey

• Zeki Çelik
• Volkan Babacan
• Ümit Davala
• Turhan Akra
• Sergen Yalçın
• Tanju Çolak
• Aykut Kocaman
• Oğuz Çetin

Asia

Iran

• Allahyar Sayyadmanesh

Africa

Gabon

• David Sambissa

Ivory Coast

• Simon Deli

Senegal

• Racine Coly
• Alassane Ndao

List of presidents

As of 6 June 2019^[12]

• 1925–1935: Kemal Halim Gürgen
• 1935–1941: Fethi Tanalay
• 1941–1946: Murat Çelikel
• 1946–1968: Ali Sohtorik
• 1968–1970: Talha Dinçel
• 1970–1972: Nirun Şahingiray
• 1972–1973: Hayri Aydıner
• 1973–1977: Hüseyin Taşdelenler
• 1977–1978: Ural Aydıner
• 1978–1980: Orhan Togar
• 1980–1981: Dursun Öztürk
• 1981–1984: Fethi Erhan
• 1984–1987: Muhsin Sarıcı
• 1987–1988: Mehmet Yıldırım
• 1988–1992: Aziz Alturfan
• 1992–1998: Cem Uzan
• 1998–2002: Tayfun Gündoğar
• 2002–2004: Adnan Sezgin
• 2004–2006: Mehmet Akif Yaşin
• 2006–2008: Saffet Sancaklı
• 2008–2015: Ömer Sarıalioğlu
• 2015–present: Ecmel Faik Sarıalioğlu