Beyoğlu Spor Kulübü, also known as the Beyoğlu Sports Club, or by its historic Greek name of Athlitikós Sýllogos Péran (), or Pera Sports Club, is an amateur sports club based in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. It fields teams in

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 ...

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 (appro ...

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 ...

and

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

History

Since the second half of the 19th century the

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

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 Pera may refer to: Places * Pera (Beyoğlu), a district in Istanbul formerly called Pera, now called Beyoğlu ** Galata, a neighbourhood of Beyoğlu, often referred to as Pera in the past * Pêra (Caparica), a Portuguese locality in the district o ...

in 1877, by three local Greek intellectuals, K.D. Kostarakis, I.A. Zervoudakis and A.K. Stefopoulos, as "Clio Sports Club". In 1886, it was renamed to "Hermes Sport Club", in which the football department was founded in 1914 and was renamed to "Greek Football Team". In 1922 it was renamed to "Pera Sports Club". With the establishment of the

Republic of Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

in 1923, it 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 for some years that period. The football team managed to capture the fifth place at the

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

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. Beyoğluspor did not field senior team from late 1990s 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 Lefter Küçükandonyadis (, ''Lefteris Antoniadis''; 22 December 1924 – 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 Fe ...

, a

Turkey national football team The Turkey national football team (), recognized as Türkiye by FIFA and UEFA, represents Turkey in men's international Association football, football matches. The team is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation (), the governing body for ...

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 Leagues: 1877–1962, 1973–1984, 1987–present

Notable athletes

* Christos Iakovou, weightlifter and former coach of Greek National Weightlifting Team * Kadri Aytaç, football player *

Şükrü Gülesin Şükrü Mustafa Gülesin (14 September 1922 – 10 July 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,

, football player *

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

, football player * Themos Asderis, football player * Koço Kasapoğlu, football player * Alekos Sofianidis, football player

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beyoğluspor Beyoğluspor Football clubs in Istanbul Association football clubs established in 1923 1923 establishments in Turkey Süper Lig clubs Greek sports clubs outside Greece