Beyoğluspor Kulübü, also known as the Beyoğlu Sports Club, or by its historic Greek name of Pera Sports Club ( el, ΑΣΠ; Αθλητικός Σύλλογος Πέραν), or simply Pera Club, is an amateur sports club based in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. It fields teams in

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

History

Since the second half of the 19th century the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

community of Constantinople founded several sports clubs and organized sports activities such as the ''Pan-Constantinopolitan Games''. The club claims it was founded in Pera in 1877, by three local Greek intellectuals, K.D. Kostarakis, I.A. Zervoudakis and A.K. Stefopoulos, as Clio Sports Club. In 1884, it was renamed to Hermès Sport Club, in which the football department was founded in 1914. With the establishment of the

Republic of Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

in 1923 it was briefly renamed Pera Sports Club and, later that year, was formally registered as "Beyoğlu Spor Kulübü". Until 1926, the club's activities were housed in the deserted gym of ''Hermes SC''. However, after 1926 the club moved to the building of the "Ladies Charity Fraternity of Pera", also located in the region of Beyoğlu. Initially, Beyoğluspor maintained two departments, football and gymnastics. Later, there were established departments of wrestling and boxing and in 1926 of basketball and volleyball. During its history, many of the club's departments had been awarded in a variety of competitions. The Volleyball department of Beyoğluspor was one of the most distinguished teams in Turkey during the 1940s and 1950s, while it also won the

Turkish championship Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and ...

for some years that period. The football team managed to capture the fifth place at the

Istanbul Football League The Istanbul Football League ( tr, İstanbul Futbol Ligi) was founded as a regional football league under the name Constantinople Football Association League by James La Fontaine and Henry Pears in Istanbul, the capital of the former Ottoman Empi ...

in 1945, while in the early 1960s it competed in the First League. The efforts of the club managers and presidents, such as G. Chalkousis, S. Kanakis, G. Mouzakis, A. Tripos, played a determining part in these successes. On the other hand, several athletes were distinguished both in Greek but also in international level, like the World Champion in weightlifting and latter coach of the Greek weightlifting team,

Christos Iakovou Christos Iakovou ( el, Χρήστος Ιακώβου; born 12 April 1948) is a Greek weightlifter. He competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics, the 1972 Summer Olympics and the 1976 Summer Olympics. He was named the 1975 Greek Male Athlete of the Ye ...

. Beyoğluspor didn't field senior team from late 90s to 2014 due to money shortage. Finally Beyoğluspor joined 6th Group of Istanbul 2nd Amateur League, lowest amateur level for İstanbul teams in 2014–15 season. They finished this group as sixth.

Popularity

The majority of the fans were among the Greek community of the city. However, Beyoğluspor witnessed a dramatic decrease of its supporters for a period when

Lefter Küçükandonyadis , ''Lefteris Antoniadis''; 22 December 1925 – 13 January 2012) was a Turkish professional footballer of Greek descent, who played as a forward. He is often recognized as one of the greatest strikers to play for Fenerbahçe and Turkey. Having won ...

, a

Turkish national football team The Turkey national football team ( tr, Türkiye Millî Futbol Takımı) represents Turkey in men's international football matches. The team is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation ( tr, Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu), the governing body ...

player of Greek descent and one of the best players in Turkey in 1950s and 1960s, played for Fenerbahçe, turning most of the local Greeks to change temporarily their support to Fenerbahçe.

Present situation

Today, Beyoğluspor is one of the few surviving Greek foundations of the city and fields teams in

and

at the amateur level.

League participation for football branch

* First League: 1962–1964 * Second League: 1964–1967 * Third League: 1967–1973, 1984–1987 * Amateur League: 1877-1962, 1973–1984, 1987–present

Notable athletes

, weightlifter and former coach of Greek National Weightlifting Team *

Kadri Aytaç Kadri Aytaç (6 August 1931 – 28 March 2003) was a former Turkish football player and then manager. He played for the Beyoğluspor, Karagümrük, Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Mersin İdmanyurdu teams. He is the manager with the most titles e ...

, football player *

Şükrü Gülesin Şükrü Gülesin (September 14, 1922 – July 10, 1977) was a Turkish football player and sports journalist. Almost two meters tall, he was a strong and quick striker, as well as a free kick and penalty specialist, and played for Beşiktaş, ...

, football player *

Kostas Negrepontis Kostas Negrepontis ( el, Κώστας Νεγρεπόντης; 31 October 1897 – 19 February 1973) was a Greek footballer who played as a center forward in the 1920's and 1930's and a later manager. He was considered a great virtuoso of the bal ...

, football player *

Themos Asderis Themistoklis "Themos" Asderis ( el, Θέμος Ασδέρης; 1900 – 22 March 1975) was a Greek footballer who played as a defender in the 1920's and a later manager. A pioneer of Greek football and one of the main founders of Pera Club and A ...

, football player * Koço Kasapoğlu, football player *

Alekos Sofianidis Alekos Sofianidis ( el, Αλέκος Σοφιανίδης, tr, Aleko Sofyanidis; 3 August 1937 – 6 July 2010) was a Turkish-born Greek professional footballer who played as a left back and a later manager. Club career Born in the Beyoğlu ...

, football player

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beyoglu SK Football clubs in Istanbul Beyoğlu SK Association football clubs established in 1923 1923 establishments in Turkey Süper Lig clubs Greek sports clubs outside Greece

History

Popularity

Present situation

League participation for football branch

Notable athletes

See also

References