It is 19 years since Galatasaray made history by winning the UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup, pioneering victories that changed the perception of Turkish football
TRAILBLAZERS
TURKEY'S
The unspoken truth about shock wins is that they are rarely ever total shocks. The seeds of football’s upsets are usually planted well in advance, missed by fans and neutrals until the underdogs are celebrating at the final whistle. Perhaps the favourites were not so irresistible after all. Perhaps the supposed minnows had long been building towards this moment. Maybe they were a force to be feared all along – even if their captain ended the game with a dislocated shoulder.
Take a bow, Bülent Korkmaz. The former Galatasaray skipper remains a totemic figure for his role in Turkish football’s breakthrough moment, a warrior-leader brushing off injury to help his team stun Europe. It was the year 2000, the dawn of a new millennium, a time pregnant with possibilities, ripe for change. And along came a team from Istanbul in their bright red and yellow shirts, bookending the summer with a pair of landmark victories.
“It was very special because we achieved a first for Turkey,” says Bülent, whose old side are still the only Süper Lig club to lift a European trophy – breaking new ground when they beat Arsenal on penalties in the 2000 UEFA Cup final. Galatasaray had seen off Bologna, Borussia Dortmund, Mallorca and Leeds to reach the decider, rupturing the notion that Turkish teams were second-tier rivals, especially away. And they exploded it against the Gunners in Copenhagen, before pipping Real Madrid to the UEFA Super Cup in Monaco three months later.
Both times they returned home to frenzied receptions. “Hopefully, there will be other Turkish teams in the future,” adds Bülent, “but they won’t be remembered like the first. The first always get to write history.” True enough, though the first were also supremely gifted, featuring world champion goalkeeper Cláudio Taffarel, former Barcelona stopper Gheorghe Popescu and the most famous Gheorghe of all – Hagi, the talismanic playmaker with spells at both Barça and Real Madrid on his CV.
“We were a group of players who’d been playing together for a long time,” explains Bülent, a one-club man who joined Galatasaray aged 11. “Secondly, every player
Bülent Korkmaz as coach of Antalyaspor and with Galatasaray at the 2000 UEFA Cup final
had a good character and we did our job properly. Thirdly, we were deeply connected and knew each other very well. And the UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup triumphs came after we’d won our fourth consecutive domestic title. That shows they were a result of long-term planning and practice.”
There was hunger as well, instilled by a coach known as the ‘Emperor’, Fatih Terim, in his first spell in charge. “His primary features were motivation and inspiration,” says Bülent, surely the greatest symbol of Galatasaray’s tenacity. The centre-back was unrelenting at Parken Stadium, where the Lions were expected to struggle against Arsène Wenger’s swashbuckling Arsenal side. Their task became stiffer after Hagi’s extra-time red card, and downright perilous when Bülent realised he had dislocated his shoulder – with all three substitutions made and the scoreline still 0-0.
“I was challenging for the ball with Thierry Henry and fell on my shoulder,” he recalls. “I felt my shoulder come loose and immediately knew something was wrong. I pushed it a little from my elbow. I thought I’d put it back, but I felt very uncomfortable. I couldn’t make all the moves I wanted, and a similar thing happened later in the game. Burhan Uslu, our team doctor, came on to the pitch to apply bandages. But even after that, I couldn’t play with 100% efficiency.”
"Hopefully, there will be other Turkish teams in the future,
but they won’t be remembered like the first"
BÜLENT KORKMAZ
Still, Bülent knew he had a job to do, and soldiered on to make some valuable late clearances. “It wasn’t painful at all,” he insists, so much so that he was ready to take a penalty in the shoot-out if required. “I was looking forward to it. After Hagi’s dismissal, my injury and still taking the game to penalties, we had absolute faith in ourselves to win the trophy. We knew that after all those negatives, we would see the sun.”
They did, winning 4-1 on spot kicks following misses from Davor Šuker and Patrick Vieira. And not even the state of his shoulder was about to prevent Bülent from his crowning moment with the cup. “Maybe 50 years from now, people will forget my name,” he says. “But they’ll remember me as the captain who lifted the trophy with a dislocated shoulder.”
Galatasaray win the 2000 UEFA Super Cup
Bülent’s injury ruled him out of Turkey’s squad for UEFA EURO 2000, yet his summer of success was far from over. Galatasaray’s victory had earned them a tilt at European champions Real Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup, and they went into that game full of belief. “Our opponents had showed us deep respect during the UEFA Cup. We felt they were wary of us. You start to feel like there’s no big difference between the teams, no matter how gigantic your opponents look on paper.”
There were challenges nonetheless, with Terim having left to coach Fiorentina. Galatasaray appointed Mircea Lucescu in his
stead, and the Romanian wisely put an emphasis on continuity. “He made a smooth transition and was able to settle into the role quickly,” says Bülent, whose immediate concern was instead the form of new striker Mário Jardel, snapped up after a prolific spell with Porto.
“We had doubts about him,” recalls the 50-year-old. “Let me explain. During training sessions and friendly matches, his performances didn’t reach above a certain level. However, there are some players who leave their mark on competitive games.”
So it proved. Luís Figo was making his Madrid debut, but it was Jardel who took the headlines with both goals in Galatasaray’s 2-1 victory – the first a penalty and the second a predatory finish in extra time to seal a golden-goal win, after Raúl González had equalised from the spot. Madrid, like Arsenal before them, had been tamed. And Bülent had another trophy to lift.
Now coach of Antalyaspor, after a brief reign at his old club in 2009, he is finally able to gauge the scope of those trailblazing triumphs. “We weren’t aware of it at the time. But since 2000, no Turkish club has won silverware in Europe. That’s led to an ever-growing respect for us. Now I can see things more clearly. Everybody is giving us the recognition we deserve. Now we understand how big our achievement was.”
TURKISH DELIGHTS
When Ali Sami Yen founded Galatasaray along with fellow students in 1905, he spelled out the club’s international focus, with one of their guiding principles “to beat the non-Turkish teams”. Since then, sides from Europe’s largest city have craved success beyond Turkey’s borders,
though they had to wait until 1956 for their first crack.
It was Galatasaray who lit the way the way, suffering a preliminary round defeat against Dinamo București in the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, before progressing to the quarter-finals in 1962/63 – the furthest stage reached by city rivals Beşiktaş (1986/87) and Fenerbahçe (2007/08). Only Galatasaray have gone further, falling to Steaua București in the 1988/89 semis.
Fenerbahçe matched that feat in the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League, knocking out Lazio in the last eight before succumbing to Benfica. They and Beşiktaş still await their first final, however, with Galatasaray’s 2000 triumphs having raised the bar, though Fener’s Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium did host Shakhtar Donetsk’s victory in the 2009 UEFA Cup decider.
Even more memorable, of course, was Liverpool’s ‘Miracle of Istanbul’ in the 2005 UEFA Champions League showpiece, the Reds battling back to stun AC Milan at the Atatürk Olimpiyat Stadium. Having served as backdrop to that European conquest, the goal now for Istanbul’s football community is to match it.
Istanbul hosted the 2005 UEFA Champions League final
