Altay Spor Kulübü is a Turkish professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in the city of

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

. Formed in 1914, Altay are nicknamed ''Büyük Altay'' (Great Altay). The club colors are black and white, and they play their home matches at the Alsancak Mustafa Denizli Stadium. Domestically, the club has finished third place for the

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

three times and have won the

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup () is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası''. Now Ziraat Bankası is ...

twice. They hold the record for most İzmir Football League titles with 14. They are the most successful İzmir-based club with 16 championships in various competitions. Collecting 24 points in the first half of the 1969–70 season in undefeated 15 games with 9 wins and 6 draws, Altay SK is one of three non-champion clubs that topped the first half of 1. Lig table, along with Kocaelispor in 1992–93, and

Sivasspor Sivasspor Kulübü, known as Net Global Sivasspor due to sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish sports club based in Sivas. The primary department of the club is men's football. Formed in 1967, its football department has competed in Süper Lig since t ...

in 2007–08, 2008–09 and 2019–20.

History

Altay was founded in 1914 in İzmir as İstiklal. The initial aim of the club was to unite Turkish youth under sporting activities and to encourage them, because in the 1910s minorities dominated sporting activities in İzmir. Under Ottoman rule, Turkish footballers were unable to compete. Altay was supported by many prominent Turkish politicians of the era. Former Turkish President

Celal Bayar Celal is both a masculine Turkish given name and a surname. It is the Turkish form of the Arabic word Jalal (جلال), which means "majesty". Notable people with the name include: Given name * Celal Al (born 1984), Turkish actor * Celal Adan (b ...

worked very hard in founding the club and gave his full support. Altay has an important place in Turkey's football history. The club had a key role in uniting the Turkish community during the

Turkish War of Independence , strength1 = May 1919: 35,000November 1920: 86,000Turkish General Staff, ''Türk İstiklal Harbinde Batı Cephesi'', Edition II, Part 2, Ankara 1999, p. 225August 1922: 271,000Celâl Erikan, Rıdvan Akın: ''Kurtuluş Savaşı tarih ...

. Many players and supporters of Altay SK lost their lives in the Turkish War of Independence. After the

Surname Law The Surname Law () of the Republic of Turkey is a law adopted on 21 June 1934, requiring all citizens of Turkey to adopt the use of fixed, hereditary surnames. Prior to 1934, Turkish families in the major urban centres had names by which they were ...

was adopted,

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

gave General Fahreddin Pasha the surname of "Altay". Altay plays in the

İzmir Alsancak Stadium The Alsancak Mustafa Denizli Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in İzmir, Turkey used mostly for football (soccer), football matches. The stadium has a capacity of 15,000 and was built in 1929. In 1959 it hosted Turkey's first-ever premiere le ...

first built in 1929 and was rebuilt in 2021.

Honours

National Championships

** ''Third place (3):'' 1956–57, 1969–70, 1976–77 *

Turkish Football Championship The Turkish Football Championship () was a top-level association football, football competition in Turkey. It was the first nationwide championship in Turkish football history. The championship was organised by the Turkish Football Federation (the ...

** ''Runners-up (2):''

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

TFF First League The TFF 1. Lig (), currently referred to as Trendyol 1. Lig for sponsorship reasons, is the second level of the Turkish football league system. The league was founded in 2001 as the ''Turkish Second League Category A'' after the reorganization ...

** Winners (1): 2001–02 ** ''Runners-up (2):'' 1983–84, 1990–91 * Turkish Football Federation Cup ** Winners (1): 2006–07 ** ''Runners-up (1):'' 1963–64

National Cups

** Winners (2): 1966–67, 1979–80 ** ''Runners-up (5):'' 1963–64, 1967–68, 1971–72, 1978–79, 1985–86 *

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, in association football, basketball, handball, volleyball and rugby union which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competi ...

** ''Runners-up (2):''

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

, 1980 * Prime Minister's Cup ** ''Runners-up (3):'' 1972, 1979, 1986 * Organ Doğan Cup ** ''Runners-up (18):'' 1936, 1937, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1958, 1961, 1968, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1984, 2004, 2005, 2021 * Ayçilek Doğan Cup ** ''Runners-up (2):'' 1973, 1978 * Tore Doğan Cup ** ''Runners-up (1):'' 1976 * Aydin Doğan Cup ** ''Runners-up (3):'' 1963, 1964, 1986

Regional competitions

* İzmir Professional League ** Winners (2): 1956–57, 1957–58 * İzmir Football League ** Winners (14) (record): 1923–24, 1924–25, 1927–28, 1928–29, 1930–31, 1933–34, 1936–37, 1940–41, 1945–46, 1947–48, 1950–51, 1953–54, 1956–57, 1957–58 ¹Altay won the championship as "Üçok" (Three arrows), an alliance between Altay, Altınordu, and

Bucaspor Bucaspor was a professional Turkish Association football, football club based in Buca, İzmir. Formed in 1928, Bucaspor were nicknamed Fırtına (Storm). The club colours were yellow and navy. It was dissolved in 2020. History Bucaspor was the ...

League participations

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

: 1958–83, 1984–90, 1991–2000, 2002–03, 2021–2022 *

: 1983–84, 1990–91, 2000–02, 2003–11, 2018–21, 2022–2024 *

TFF Second League The TFF 2. Lig (), currently referred to as Nesine 2. Lig for sponsorship reasons, is the third level in the Turkish football league system. It was founded in the 2001–02 season with the name of ''Turkish Second League Category B'' as a continu ...

: 2011–15, 2017–18, 2024–25 *

TFF Third League The TFF 3. Lig (), currently referred to as Nesine 3. Lig for sponsorship reasons, is the fourth level in the Turkish football league system. It was founded in the 2001–02 season as a continuation of then third level division Turkish Third Foot ...

: 2015–17, 2025–

European record

¹ UEFA edition. ² non-UEFA edition.

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

: ¹ The tournament was founded in 1961–62, but was only taken over by UEFA in 1995.

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, most commonly referred to as the Fairs Cup and sometimes as the European Fairs Cup or Fairs Cities' Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The Fairs Cup was the idea of FIFA vice-presid ...

Balkans Cup The Balkans Cup was an international football competition for clubs from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. It was introduced in 1961 and was very popular in the 1960s (the 1967 final attracted 42,000 spectators), being ...

: UEFA Ranking history:

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Sources

Football history in Izmir

References

External links

*
Altay
on TFF.org {{Turkish Women's First Football League Association football clubs established in 1914 Football clubs in Turkey 1914 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Süper Lig clubs