Antalyaspor

Antalyaspor

Full name	Antalyaspor Kulübü
Nickname(s)	Akrepler (Scorpions)
Founded	2 July 1966 (1966-07-02)
Ground	New Antalya Stadium
Ground Capacity	32,539
President	Gültekin Gencer
Manager	José Morais
League	Süper Lig
2015–16	Süper Lig, 9th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Antalyaspor is a Turkish professional football club located in the city of Antalya. The club colours are red and white and they play their home matches at Centennial Arena.

Domestically, the club has won the 2.Lig twice, in 1982 and 1986. They also finished as runners-up for the Turkish Cup in 2000.

History

Antalyaspor were established in 1966 after three local teams united to establish a club for the coastal city of Antalya. These teams were Yenikapı SuSpor, İlk Işıkspor and Ferrokromspor. The club competed in the lower divisions of the Turkish football league system before earning promotion to the Süper Lig in 1982. Their first stint of top-flight football lasted two years, as they were relegated back to the 2.Lig at the end of the 1984–85 season. They were promoted the next season, but were relegated just as fast. They competed in the 2.Lig until the end of the 1993–94 season, when they beat Istanbulspor 3–2 after extra time in the final of the promotion playoffs.

Their longest stint of top-flight football lasted until 2002. In that time span, the club competed continentally in the Intertoto Cup twice and the UEFA Cup once. They reached the finals of the Turkish Cup in 2000, but lost 5–3 after extra time to Galatasaray. Antalyaspor competed in the UEFA Cup the following season, defeating Werder Bremen 2–0 after home, before losing 6–0 in the second leg. The club was relegated at the end of the 2001–02 season, finishing one point below the relegation zone.

The club earned promotion back to the Süper Lig after placing second in the 2005–06 1.Lig. On 3 December 2006, Pavol Straka scored the clubs 500th goal in top-flight football. The following year they were relegated back to the 1.Lig, but earned promotion again the next season. They finished ninth at the end of the 2009–10 season.

Colours and badge

Antalya SK's classic home kit

The club emblem includes capital letters A and S which stand for Antalya and Spor (sport in Turkish) respectively. In the middle of these letters, there is the figure of Yivli Minare which is one of the several symbols of the city of Antalya. Three rectangular shapes on the Yivli Minare means the unite of three teams of Antalya.

Stadium

Akdeniz University Stadium

From 2012 Antalyaspor played their home matches at Akdeniz University Stadium which holds 7,083 spectators. Its located at Mediterranean coast of Turkey and its owned by Akdeniz University.

Centennial Arena

In 2013 Antalyaspor began the construction of their new stadium, New Antalya Stadium. The stadium seats 33,032 spectators and was opened in summer of 2015, with a football park, education centre, a football academy and extra training pitches to host camps of overseas European or Asian teams on break. The nickname of the stadium is named as "100. Yıl" (Centennary), due to arthery of the same name passing south of the plot 100. Yıl Bulvarı, named after 100th birthday of Kemal Atatürk, founder of Turkish Republic.

Relationship with Kocaelispor after the Kocaeli earthquake

Antalyaspor have close relations with Kocaelispor. This goes back to the 1999 İzmit earthquake, which had a devastating effect on the city of İzmit. Turkish cities unaffected by the earthquake gave refuge to those left homeless. Among the refugees, who fled the region to seek refuge in Antalya were Kocaelispor ultras, who go by the name, 'Hodrimeydan'.

The league carried on despite the chaos caused by the earthquake. Kocaelispor soon had an away game against Denizlispor to which two coach loads of Antalyaspor supporters traveled too in support of the people of İzmit, who were going through tough times. Inspired by this show of support, Kocaelispor supporters travelled to Antalyaspor's cup final game against Galatasaray S.K. in Diyarbakır. The two teams supporters continued to make similar gestures to each other, and a strong bond was built between 'Hodrimeydan' and the Antalyaspor ultragroup 'Gençlik 07'. The supporters have a great relationship today and sit in mixed stands when the two clubs play each other.

Players

Current squad

As of 17 February 2016

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Ozan Özenç 2 DF Can Arat 5 MF Sezer Badur 6 MF Oğuz Mataracı 7 MF Zeki Yıldırım 8 MF Kadir Bekmezci 9 FW Samuel Eto'o (Captain) 11 MF Emrah Başsan 13 DF Gökhan Yilmaz 17 MF Jean Makoun 18 MF Yekta Kurtuluş 20 MF Chico 21 MF Serdar Özkan 22 DF Samuel Inkoom 23 DF Sakıb Aytaç 24 MF Lionel Enguene

No. Position Player 25 DF Rıdvan Şimşek 27 MF Dejan Lazarević (on loan from Chievo Verona) 28 DF Ondřej Čelůstka 29 GK Ahmet Özden 31 DF Ramon Motta 32 GK Sašo Fornezzi 33 DF Diego Angelo 35 MF Erman Kılıç 55 MF Oktay Delibalta 66 MF Atakan Cangöz 70 MF Charles 75 DF Birkan Öksüz 77 FW Ömer Şişmanoğlu 90 MF Danilo 92 GK Raïs M'Bolhi 99 FW Mbilla Etame

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 3 DF Josip Kvesić (on loan to Karşıyaka until 30 June 2016) 37 FW Halil Ibrahim Tuna (on loan to Balikesirspor until 30 June 2016) 39 MF Ahmet Aras (on loan to Şanlıurfaspor until 30 June 2016)

Honours

• Turkish Cup
  • Runners-up (1): 2000
• 2.Lig
  • Winners (2): 1982, 1986
  • Runners-up (2): 2006, 2008

European Competitions

Intertoto Cup:

Season	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1996	GS		FC Basel	2–5		3rd place
	GS		Ataka-Aura Minsk		3–0
	GS		Rotor Volgograd	2–1
	GS		Shakhtar Donetsk		0–1
1997	GS		Publikum		1–1	4th place
	GS		Maccabi Haifa	0–2
	GS		Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod		0–1
	GS		Proleter Zrenjanin	1–0

UEFA Cup/Europa League:

Season	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2000–01	QR		Kapaz	5–0	2–0	7–0
	1R		Werder Bremen	2–0	0–6	2–6

Managers

Dates	Name	Honours
1981–1982	Kadir Giderler
1982–1983	Valeriu Neagu
1983–1984	Yılmaz Gökdel
1984	Ümit Turmuş
1984	Zeynel Soyuer
1985–1986	Adnan Dinçer
1988–1989	Yılmaz Vural
1997–1998	Şenol Güneş
1998–1999	Jozef Jarabinský
1999–2000	Rüdiger Abramczik	1 Turkish Cup Final
2001	Hüseyin Kalpar
2005–2007	Yılmaz Vural
2007	Raşit Çetiner
2008	Hikmet Karaman
2008	Jozef Jarabinský
2008–2013	Mehmet Özdilek
2013–2014	Samet Aybaba
2014	Fuat Çapa
2014–2015	Engin Korukır	99991 Promote to Süper Lig
2015	Yusuf Şimşek
2015–2016	Samuel Eto'o (interim player-manager)
2016–	José Morais

External links

• Official website (Turkish)