With Liverpool due to play Turkish side Trabzonspor tomorrow, I thought it might be interesting to list some facts about the club:
– Trabzonspor was founded in 1967 after a merger between several clubs based in the city of Trabzon. From their foundation they have worn a maroon and blue coloured strip and have the nickname Radeniz Firtinasi (Black Sea Storm) or move plainly the Bordo-Mavililer (Maroon-Blues).
– The Bordo-Mavililer play at the Hüseyin Avni Aker Stadium, which has a capacity of close to 20,000. They have played at the ground since the formation of the club back in 1967.
– Trabzonspor is the only professional club in Trabzon. The city has a population of 1.2million people and is located on the North East coast of Turkey on the Black Sea, hence the nickname Black Sea Storm.
– The Trabzonspor football team also has a women’s equivalent as well as a Basketball team called “Medical Park Trabzonspor” which plays in the national Basketball league.
– The club is the most successful Turkish football team outside of Istanbul. It has won 29 trophies in all since 1967 including six Turkish Super Lig titles and eight Turkish Cups. It’s last league title however came all the way back in 1984. They have finished runners up in recent years though and finished second in both the 2003/04 and 2004/05 seasons.
– The most successful managers were Ahmet Suat Ozyazici and Ozkan Sumer who won the six league titles between them in spells in charge between 1975 -1984.
– The present coach is Senol Gunes. Gunes is in his second spell in charge of the club after being in charge for 4 years during the 90s. Since taking over last year he has already guided them to a Turkish Cup and to a 5th place finish.
– The two creative players to look out for in the Trabzonspor team are 25 year old Turkish midfielder Selcuk Inan and Argentine Gustavo Colman who are the driving forces of the team.
– Their top goalscorer last season was Umut Bulut with 11 goals in the Turkish Super Lig.
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