Trabzonspor

The club

Trabzonspor were founded on 2 August 1967 in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon, out of the merger of four local clubs, İdmanocağı, İdmangücü, Karadenizgücü and Martıspor. The merger ended a rivalry that had divided the city between the older sides. The colours are claret and sky blue, which is where the nickname Bordo-Mavililer, the Claret-Blues, comes from; the other and better-travelled nickname is Karadeniz Fırtınası, the Black Sea Storm. The supporters' slogan is "Bize her yer Trabzon", rendered in English as "Everywhere is Trabzon for us", a reference to how far the club's following spreads across Turkey and into the Turkish communities of western Europe.

The ground is the Şenol Güneş Spor Kompleksi, named for the goalkeeper who played for Trabzonspor and Turkey and later managed the national team. It opened to the public on 18 December 2016 and holds 41,061. It carried the sponsor name Medical Park Arena in 2016/17, Medical Park Stadyumu from 2017 to 2022, and is now Papara Park. It cost around 35 million dollars to build between 2013 and 2016, to a design by ASP Stuttgart, and has a hybrid grass surface and 122 executive boxes. The record attendance there is 40,368, oddly enough for a youth match, Trabzonspor under-19s against Internazionale Primavera on 1 April 2025. Before 2016 the club played at the Hüseyin Avni Aker Stadium, built in 1951, which held 24,169.

The head coach is Fatih Tekke and the president is Ertuğrul Doğan.

Trabzonspor should not be confused with 1461 Trabzon, a separate club in the same city. That one was founded in 1998 as Değirmenderespor, was bought by Trabzonspor after promotion in 2008 and renamed Trabzon Karadenizspor and then 1461 Trabzon, after the year the Empire of Trebizond fell to the Ottomans. It is the affiliate side, made up largely of Trabzonspor A2 players on loan or former A2 players, it plays in the Turkish Regional Amateur League in front of 1,200 seats, and it is not Trabzonspor. Nor should the club be confused with the regional neighbours it plays in the Eastern Black Sea derby, Çaykur Rizespor and Samsunspor, which are separate clubs from separate cities.

Recent seasons

Trabzonspor were champions in 2021/22, then sixth in 2022/23, third in 2023/24, and seventh in 2024/25 with 51 points. In 2025/26 they finished third with 69 points from 34 matches, 20 wins, 9 draws and 5 defeats, 61 goals scored and 39 conceded, and won the Turkish Cup. The average home league attendance that season was 27,335. Paul Onuachu was the top scorer with 22 in the league and 26 in all competitions. They reached the semi-finals of the Turkish Super Cup and lost 4-1 to Galatasaray in Gaziantep on 5 January 2026.

Honours and landmarks

Seven Süper Lig titles: 1975/76, 1976/77, 1978/79, 1979/80, 1980/81, 1983/84 and 2021/22. The first of them, in 1975/76, was won with 43 points, three clear of Fenerbahçe, and it made Trabzonspor the first club from outside Istanbul to be champions of Turkey.

Ten Turkish Cups, in 1976/77, 1977/78, 1983/84, 1991/92, 1994/95, 2002/03, 2003/04, 2009/10, 2019/20 and 2025/26. Ten Turkish Super Cups, in 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1995, 2010, 2020 and 2022. Five Prime Minister's Cups.

Between the sixth title in 1983/84 and the seventh there were 38 years without a championship. The seventh came under Abdullah Avcı in 2021/22 and was clinched on 30 April 2022 with a 2-2 draw against Antalyaspor. The final record was 81 points from 38 matches, 23 wins, 12 draws and 3 defeats, 69 goals scored and 36 conceded. Andreas Cornelius was the leading scorer with 15 in the league and 17 in all competitions, in a side that also had Tasos Bakasetas, Anthony Nwakaeme, Marek Hamšík and the captain, goalkeeper Uğurcan Çakır.

The 2010/11 season is the one the club has never let go of. Trabzonspor and Fenerbahçe both finished on 82 points and Fenerbahçe took the title on goal average. On 3 July 2011 raids across fifteen cities led to the arrest of 93 people, among them the Fenerbahçe president Aziz Yıldırım, over allegations that officials had bribed and manipulated the outcome of 17 fixtures that season to secure the championship. Fenerbahçe were excluded from the 2011/12 Champions League and Trabzonspor took their place, going into the group stage after having lost in qualifying; UEFA's two-season ban on Fenerbahçe was upheld in August 2013. Trabzonspor took the question of the title itself to the Turkish federation, to UEFA, to FIFA and finally to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which dismissed the appeal on 30 July 2019 on the ground that no rule existed under which the runners-up could be declared winners even where FIFA had ordered the federation to sanction the champions. The club still claims the 2011 title on its own website. A subsequent application to the European Court of Human Rights has been reported, but its outcome was not established from the sources read here.

Notable scorelines

The best-remembered result is the 1-0 win over Liverpool, then the English champions, at home in the second round of the 1976/77 European Cup, a tie Trabzonspor lost after going down 3-0 in the return. The biggest European win is 10-0 on aggregate over Vllaznia Shkodër of Albania in the second round of the 2007 Intertoto Cup, 6-0 and 4-0. The heaviest European defeat is 6-0 on aggregate to Kaiserslautern in the 1982/83 UEFA Cup, 3-0 in each leg.

The record league defeat is 7-0 to Antalyaspor in week 33 of 2015/16. The club's record league win was not established from the sources read here. The worst league finish is 14th, in 2001/02.

European record

Trabzonspor's overall European record stands at 39 participations, 156 matches played, 56 won, 39 drawn and 61 lost, 194 goals scored and 210 conceded.

The debut came in the 1976/77 European Cup, past ÍA of Iceland 6-3 on aggregate in the first round and out to Liverpool 3-1 in the second, which remains the furthest the club has gone in the European Cup or Champions League. The best UEFA Cup or Europa League run is the round of sixteen in 1991/92, and the best Cup Winners' Cup run the round of sixteen in 1992/93. In the Conference League the furthest reached is the round of 32, in 2022/23.

The 2011/12 Champions League group stage, entered in place of the excluded Fenerbahçe, ended in third place in the group: 1-1 at home to Internazionale and 3-0 away, 1-1 with Lille, and 0-0 at home to CSKA Moscow before losing 3-0 in Moscow.

Quotes

No directly quoted material from players, managers or officials was confirmed from the sources read here. The club's own account of its supporter culture preserves an unattributed note left by a fan in 1996: "Wrap me in a Trabzonspor flag when I am buried. No one is responsible for my death. If I were to be reborn, I would want to be born as a Trabzonspor fan again."

Right now (2026/27)

Fatih Tekke is the head coach and Stefan Savić of Montenegro is captain. The summer was the loudest in the club's recent history. Mohamed Salah signed a two-year contract on 6 August 2026 as a free agent, having left Liverpool at the end of the previous season after nine years, 257 goals in 442 appearances, two Premier League titles and a Champions League among eight major honours; he had a year left on his Liverpool deal but announced his departure in March after a season of 12 goals and a public falling-out with Arne Slot. He flew in on 5 August and was met by crowds. André Onana arrived on loan from Manchester United, Fabinho on a free on 24 August, and Ruslan Malinovskyi on a free from Genoa, alongside Noah Saviolo for a reported 8.5 million euros and Samet Akaydın on a free.

In the league Trabzonspor have taken 4 points from their first two matches and sit fourth, having drawn 1-1 away to Kasımpaşa on 15 August 2026 and beaten Başakşehir 2-1 at home on 23 August, 3 scored and 2 conceded. The shirt is made by Joma and sponsored by Papara.

Europe is the immediate problem. In the first leg of the Europa League play-off round, at Papara Park on 20 August 2026 in front of 32,569, Ferencváros won 1-0. Kristoffer Zachariassen headed in a cross from Oliver Nagy past Onana on 17 minutes. Salah, making his first start for the club, put a shot narrowly wide on 49 minutes and Paul Onuachu hit the crossbar on 55, and the chances dried up after Chibuike Nwaiwu was sent off for violent conduct in the 96th minute. The second leg is in Budapest on 27 August 2026, with Trabzonspor needing to overturn the deficit to reach the Europa League league phase; losing it drops them into the Conference League rather than out of Europe. Its result was not established from the sources read here.

Upcoming league fixtures are away to Amed Sportif on 31 August 2026, home to Gençlerbirliği on 6 September, away to Konyaspor on 13 September and home to Galatasaray on 20 September.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.