Turkish Super Lig celebrates 59th year

Turkey’s top football league, Spor Toto Super Lig, is 59 years old today.

Turkey’s top league, Spor Toto Super Lig as it’s known for sponsorship reasons or more commonly as the Turkish Super Lig, has turned 59 years today after having gone a few overhauls since its inception.

The very first goal in the league was scored by Ozcan Altug of Izmirspor. The goal of the “National League” as it was called back then, was scored in the Izimirspor-Beykoz match. Ozcan wrote his name in the history books in the 11th minute of the match as he put the ball in the back of the net at Alsancak Stadium in Beykoz.

Since 1959, only five teams have shared the joy of being crowned Super Lig champions; Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, Besiktas, Trabzonspor and Bursaspor. Apart from these teams, no other has ever won the league title before.

The most successful team in Turkey is Galatasaray having won the league 20 times. Fenerbahce and Besiktas have each been crowned Super Lig champions 19 and 13 times respectively. Trabzonspor have 6 titles to their name while Bursaspor became champions for the one and only time back in 2010.

The league’s all-time top-goalscorer, to this day, is still Hakan Sukur with 249 goals in 489 appearances. Sukur set the record back in 2008 and no other player has come close to equaling or bettering his goal tally.

Turkey’s top league continues to enjoy a rise in reputation with each completed season. As of February 2018, it is ranked in 10th place by UEFA. Turkish teams continue to impress at home and abroad and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the league move higher up the rankings in the near future.