GALATASARAY SPORTS CLUB, 1905
Galatasaray Sports Club undoubtedly received its pioneering feature in Turkish Sports History from Galatasaray High School (Mektebi Sultani), which was also a pioneering institution from which it was born. The unbreakable bond between the school and the club is an undeniable reality and source of pride.

In order to raise statesmen, II. Founded by Beyazıt in 1481, the school took its name from the region where it was founded and became known as "Galata Palace". The school attained its modern status on September 1, 1868, during the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz. With the restructuring of the school, the first real sports activities started in Turkey and Physical Education course was added to the education program by the gymnast 'Monsieur Curel'. These breakthroughs are truly revolutionary. While Curel develops the students it trains with modern equipment in terms of sports, it organizes a training festival for them in Kağıthane. The year is 1870. Athletes who are successful in this event win various awards and medals, and at the end of the competitions, students are given "rice with lamb". This also marked the beginning of another tradition in subsequent years.


Foreign sports coaches who took over after Curel (such as M. Moiroux, Signor Martinetti, Stangali) broke new ground by focusing on different branches (swimming, rowing, apparatus gymnastics) as well as gymnastics and athletics. The results of these studies soon began to be reaped, and in addition to Faik Üstünidman, whose name was written in golden letters in Turkish Sports History, Major Mazhar Kazancı, Abdurrahman and Ahmet Robenson brothers took part in GSL and helped popularize sports such as scouting, tennis and hockey among students. They provide. Especially with the initiative of Üstünidman, students are introduced to football. But the football played resembles a rush that is no different from a blind fight and does not recognize any rules. But football has stepped through the GSL's Ceremonial Gate and turned into a full-fledged epidemic.

In 1901, two Englishmen living in Istanbul, James Lafontaine and Horace Armitage, founded the Kadıköy Football Club, consisting of Greek and English players, but in 1903, the English players in the team left as a result of a disagreement and formed the Moda Club. In 1904, these clubs made an agreement with the Imogen, Elpis and Strugglers teams and established the Istanbul Football Union and started to hold regular matches at the "Union Club-İttihat Spor" field, located on the site of today's Fenerbahçe Şükrü Saraçoğlu Stadium. As shown, these teams are either foreign or minority. These first football matches between non-Turkish teams both concern and upset GSL students. Their aim now is to establish their own football club, to "memorize" the rules of this game they love dearly and to compete with foreigners.

Defeating non-Turkish teams

Ali Sami Yen, the founder of Galatasaray Sports Club, tells the story of its founding in his book "Fiftieth Year" as follows: "On 1 November 1905, during the lesson of our literature teacher, the late Mehmet Ata, in the fifth grade of the school, a few friends gathered together and held a meeting in Galatasaray. We decided to establish a football club. The first entrepreneurs were young people who were fond of the game and struggle, such as Asım Tevfik Sonumut, Reşat Şirvani, Cevdet Kalpakçıoğlu, Abidin Daver, Kamil... The agile and strong Bulgarian and Serbian students studying at the school also joined us. Asım I chose Asim as an accountant, Cevdet as the second president, and I became the head myself. We made him the accountant because Asim was adept at collecting a penny from his friends every week. I became the head by oiling and inflating the ball. I took care of our ball as if it were my child. All we had was a ball anyway. When we came to school , I would go through the pig alley and get lard, I would grease the ball with it and inflate it, the patch I had cut off from my new shoe. My friends who saw this gave me more honors than any of us. In other words, at that time, those who worked the hardest would gain the title of Chief and other positions. Cevdet got his second title because he washed the uniforms.

Founding Lists

Ali Sami Yen, student number 889 of the school, who was the President of Galatasaray Sports Club from 1905 to 1919, is on pages 181 and 182 of the Galatasaray Terbiye-i Bakaniye Club İhsaiyet Book (Census-Statistics Book), which he kept in pearl-like handwriting. lists the 13 founding members as follows:

1-Ali Sami Yen
2-Asım Sonumut
3-Emin Bülend Serdaroğlu
4-Celal İbrahim
5-B. Nikolof
6-Milo Bakiş
7-Pol Bakiş
8-Bekir Sıtkı Bircan
9-Tahsin Nahit
10-Reşat Şirvanizade
11-Hüseyin Hüsnü
12-Refik Cevdet Kalpakçıoğlu
13-Abidin Daver

Since there was no law on associations in the Ottoman Empire in 1905, Galatasaray Sports Club did not have the opportunity to be legally registered. After the Law on Associations was enacted in 1912, the club gained a legal identity. Since it was compulsory to notify the competent authorities of the names and addresses of the founding members along with the statutes of the clubs, the members who resigned or returned to their countries after completing their education were removed from the first list and the founding list was rearranged on September 1, 1913. The new order of the founding members is as follows:


1-Ali Sami Yen
2-Asım Sonumut
3-Emin Bülend Serdaroğlu
4-Celal İbrahim
5-Bekir Sıtkı Bircan
6-Reşat Şirvanizade
7-Refik Cevdet Kalpakçıoğlu
8-Abidin Daver.
 

FOUNDERS

1) Ali Sami Yen 01.10.1321 (1905)
2) Asım Tevfik Sonumut 01.10.1321 (1905)
3) Emin Bülent 01.10.1321 (1905)
4) Celal İbrahim 01.10.1321 (1905)
5) Bekir Sıtkı Bircan 01.10.1321 (1905)
6) Reşat Şirvanzade 01.09.1322 (1906)
7) Refik Cevdet Kalpakçıoğlu 01.09.1322 (1906)
8) Abidin Daver 01.09 .1322 (1906)
9) Ahmet Robenson 01.09.1322 (1906)
10) Ahmet Adnan Pirioğlu 1323 (1907)
11) Neş'et 01.10.1324 (1908)
12) Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın 01.10.1324 (1908)
13) Yusuf Celal 01.10.1324 (1908)
14) Hasnun Galip 01.10.1324 (1908)
15) Hüseyin Zihni Eden 01.09.1325 (1909)
16) Mehmet Rıza Kara 01.09.1325 (1909)
Boris Nikolof (*) 01.10.1321 (1905)
Mil it Bakiç (*) 01.10.1321 (1905)
Paul Bakiç (*) 01.10.1321 (1905)
Tahsin Nihat (*) 01.10.1321 (1905)
Hüseyin Hüsnü (*) 01.10.1321 (1905)
(*) These persons were registered with the Club. Their founder number was not given because they left their membership before 14 August 1913.

"GALATASARAY LIFE" FROM THE PEN OF ALI SAMİ YEN

Ali Sami Yen, the founder of Galatasaray, explains his Galatasaray membership based on a memory he had with Emin Bülent Serdaroğlu:

"I first mentioned the idea of ​​establishing our club to my best friend Emin Bülent. He was in the older class and had finished school before me, so we could only meet on holidays.
We carried out our work with Asım Tevfik, expanded our group and completed the task of establishing a club, which was a very responsible task at that time.

Since Asım Tevfik was the one who worked with us during the transition of our ambitions from idea to implementation, we recorded him at number two and Emin Bülent at number three in our registry book, which we still keep in our museum.


Years have passed. The disagreements and struggles that led to the birth of the Güneş Club made Emin very sad, he hated sports and athletes. I think that now only personal friendship binds us. Galatasaray membership seemed to have disappeared.

The years flew by again. It was a dark day I won't forget. Emin Bülent was living his last hours at his home in Göztepe. While his esteemed wife was welcoming me, she said, "Oh, you'll see it very bad this time... Get used to it before you go in, don't let it tell anything on your face..." Poor Emin's hard struggle against death for months had exhausted his lion-like body and battered his soul. He beckoned me with his hand and called me to him. “Ali Sami,” he said, “I will reveal to you a feeling that I have kept inside me until now: You have violated my rights, I am the number 2 Galatasaray player,” and with his eyes shining again for a moment, he added: “Tell your friends, if you do not give me my rights, my soul will sue all of you.” Emin had made one of the last big moves of his life. His head was turned to the side, his hands fell weakly on the quilt. I was astonished: Was this the person who didn't even want to let his club be mentioned?

To fulfill Emin's last wish, I first met with Asım. He also loved Emin very much. Club troubles tied us together like the three musketeers. Asım would have given his life to save Emin, but he could not agree to give up this document that expressed his Galatasaray membership. When it came to itself, the Galatasaray congress enthusiastically welcomed the feelings of these two veteran friends, and came to a good conclusion, seeing both of them as justified in terms of loyalty to their clubs: Both

Emin and Asım will be considered the number 2 members of Galatasaray; Number 3 would not be given to anyone. But in reality, it did not happen like that, not a single person, but all Galatasaray fans filled the place left empty by Emin's noble soul with their emotions.”