Modern day football has its origins in England with the formation of the English Football Association in 1863. Since then, football has spread like wildfire around the globe wherever the English have gone. In Turkey it was no different. A group of English settlers in the Turkish cities of Istanbul and Izmir contested the first football match on Turkish soil in 1897, according to TFF website. The Turkish football league was formed less than a decade later.
Turkish Giants
Throughout the history of Turkey's premier football division, The Super Lig, only a few clubs have ever won the title, Besiktas, Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Trabzanspor. Once a club has won the league five times they are allowed to place a gold star above their team crest. Of the four teams it is Fenerbahce and Galatasaray who are the most successful, each having won 17 titles.
European Quality
Despite the strength of Turkish teams such as Fenerbahce and Galatasaray domestically, when it comes to competing against the rest of Europe's elite in tournaments such as the Champions League, they are not up to the standard. According to UEFA.com, a team from Turkey has never won Europe's premier club competition. The best performance was from Galatasaray in the 1988-89 season, where they reached the semifinals.
European Championships
The European Championships is an international team competition, which has taken place once every four years since 1960. Turkey's best achievement in this competition came in 2008 where it narrowly lost in the semifinals to Germany, 3-2. Turkey was arguably the better team throughout the game but Germany scored in the final minute of the game to clinch a dramatic victory.
World Cup
On the biggest stage of all, the FIFA World Cup, Turkey's best moment thus far has been its 2002 semifinal appearance where it lost 1-0 to the eventual winners, Brazil. Turkey went on to finish in third place, beating the joint hosts of the competition, South Korea, 3-2, according to the FIFA website. Turkey was the joint third highest goal scorer throughout the competition, with 10 goals, but also collected the most foul cards, 17 in all.
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