Fenerbahçe
Also written as Fenerbahce.
The club
Fenerbahçe Spor Kulübü were founded in 1907 in the Kadıköy district on the Asian side of Istanbul, and give their founding date as 3 May 1907. They play at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, capacity 47,430. The colours are yellow and navy blue, and the nicknames follow from them: Sarı-Lacivertliler, the Yellow-Navy Blues, and Sarı Kanaryalar, the Yellow Canaries. The football department is run as a listed company, Fenerbahçe Futbol A.Ş., with the parent sports club holding 62.27 per cent.
Recent seasons
Fenerbahçe have finished second in the Süper Lig in each of the last five seasons and have not been champions since 2013/14.
In 2021/22 they were second on 73 points from 38 matches. In 2022/23 they were second on 80 from 36 and won the Turkish Cup. In 2023/24, under İsmail Kartal, they were second on 99 points from 38, three behind Galatasaray, having won 31 and lost one; they reached the Turkish Cup and Conference League quarter-finals, and in April 2024 fielded their under-19 side in the Turkish Super Cup final and walked off after a minute in protest, forfeiting the match. In 2024/25, under José Mourinho, they were second on 84 points from 36. In 2025/26 they were second again, on 74 points from 34 matches, 21 wins, 11 draws and 2 defeats, 77 goals scored and 37 conceded, with Talisca scoring 27. Mourinho was dismissed on 29 August 2025, Zeki Murat Göle took caretaker charge, Domenico Tedesco was appointed on 9 September 2025 and left on 27 April 2026, and Göle finished the season. Fenerbahçe won the 2025 Turkish Super Cup and reached the Turkish Cup quarter-finals.
Honours and landmarks
Fenerbahçe count 28 Turkish championships, the national record: 19 Süper Lig titles since 1959, six Turkish National Division titles between 1937 and 1950, and three Turkish Football Championships. They have won the Turkish Cup seven times, the Turkish Super Cup ten times, the Prime Minister's Cup eight times, the Istanbul Football League sixteen times and the Balkans Cup in 1966/67. In 1922/23 they won the Istanbul league without conceding a goal. In 1969/70 they conceded six league goals in a season, still a Turkish record, and in 1988/89 they scored 103 in 36 matches.
Notable scorelines
Between February 2010 and October 2012 Fenerbahçe went 47 Süper Lig matches unbeaten at the Şükrü Saracoğlu, winning 38 and drawing nine over 980 days, until Antalyaspor beat them on 29 October 2012. No all-time record win or record defeat was confirmed from the sources read here.
European record
Fenerbahçe played their 200th European match in December 2015 and their 250th in October 2022. Their best runs are the Champions League quarter-final of 2007/08, which ended against Chelsea, and the Europa League semi-final of 2012/13, lost 3-2 on aggregate to Benfica. The club was banned from European competition for two seasons from 2013 over the 2011 Turkish match-fixing investigation, which cost them a place in the 2013/14 Champions League. They reached the Conference League quarter-finals in 2023/24 and the Europa League round of 16 in 2022/23 and 2024/25.
The 2025/26 campaign was long and ended badly. In the Champions League third qualifying round they lost 2-1 at Feyenoord on 6 August 2025 and won the return 5-2 in Istanbul on 12 August, 6-4 on aggregate. In the play-off round they drew 0-0 at home with Benfica on 20 August and lost 1-0 in Lisbon on 27 August in front of 64,323, going out on aggregate and dropping into the Europa League. They came through the league phase with four wins, three draws and three defeats, then lost the knockout play-off to Nottingham Forest, beaten 0-3 at home on 19 February 2026 and winning 2-1 at the City Ground on 26 February, 4-2 on aggregate.
Quotes
- "Her 2 maçta da çok disiplinli bir oyun sergiledik. Pozisyonlara girdik ama 1 gol atabildik." - İsmail Kartal, Fenerbahçe head coach, to A Haber, 12 August 2026. https://www.ahaber.com.tr/spor/fenerbahce/2026/08/12/ismail-kartaldan-lyon-aciklamasi-ustesinden-gelebiliriz
- "Lyon maçıyla ilgili çalışmalarımız da devam edecek. Maç trafiğimiz çok yoğun." - İsmail Kartal, Fenerbahçe head coach, to A Haber, 12 August 2026. https://www.ahaber.com.tr/spor/fenerbahce/2026/08/12/ismail-kartaldan-lyon-aciklamasi-ustesinden-gelebiliriz
- "Şampiyonlar Ligi'nde oynamak mücadele etmek zor, biz bunun üstünden gelebiliriz diye düşünüyorum." - İsmail Kartal, Fenerbahçe head coach, to A Haber, 12 August 2026. https://www.ahaber.com.tr/spor/fenerbahce/2026/08/12/ismail-kartaldan-lyon-aciklamasi-ustesinden-gelebiliriz
In English, the three Kartal quotations read: we played a very disciplined game in both matches, we got into positions but could only score one goal; our work on the Lyon match will also continue, our fixture load is very heavy; playing and competing in the Champions League is hard, but I think we can get over this.
No quotation from a previous Fenerbahçe manager was confirmed from the sources read here.
Right now (2026/27)
İsmail Kartal, who took Fenerbahçe to 99 points in 2023/24, is back as head coach. The club lists Aziz Yıldırım as president.
The summer spending has been heavy. Mason Greenwood arrived from Marseille for €39m on 14 July 2026, Sidiki Cherif from Angers for €18m, and Nathan Aké from Manchester City for €7m on 4 July. Vedat Muriqi returned from Mallorca on 19 June and the Senegalese forward Amara Diouf joined from Génération Foot on 24 June. A large group of loanees came back on 1 July, among them Sofyan Amrabat from Real Betis, Diego Carlos from Como, Cengiz Ünder from Beşiktaş, Dominik Livaković from Dinamo Zagreb and the defender Ognjen Mimović from Pafos, who are also alive in this season's qualifying. Emre Mor left free for NEC Nijmegen on 20 July and Edson Álvarez returned to West Ham United.
Fenerbahçe entered the Champions League league path in the second qualifying round. They beat Górnik Zabrze 1-0 at the Şükrü Saracoğlu on 21 July 2026 through Talisca and drew 1-1 in Zabrze on 29 July, Talisca again from the penalty spot, to go through 2-1. In the third qualifying round they beat Sturm Graz 2-0 at home on 5 August, Talisca on nine minutes and Mason Greenwood on 45, and won 1-0 in Graz on 11 August through a Talisca penalty on 66 minutes, taking the tie 3-0.
That result, twenty-four hours before this dossier's cut-off, puts them in the Champions League play-off round against Lyon, first leg in Istanbul on 18 August 2026 and second leg in France on 26 August. Defeat there would send them into the Europa League league phase. Talisca has four goals in the season so far. The Süper Lig has not yet begun.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenerbah%C3%A7e_S.K._(football) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Fenerbah%C3%A7e_S.K._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Fenerbah%C3%A7e_S.K._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Champions_League_qualifying https://www.ahaber.com.tr/spor/fenerbahce/2026/08/12/ismail-kartaldan-lyon-aciklamasi-ustesinden-gelebiliriz https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/match/2049107 https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/match/2049117 https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/match/2049213
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.