Full name | Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü |
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Nickname(s) |
Kara Kartallar (Black Eagles) Siyah Beyazlılar (Black and Whites) |
Founded | 19 March 1903 as Beşiktaş Bereket Jimnastik Kulübü |
,
Ground |
Vodafone Arena Istanbul, Turkey |
Capacity | 41,903 |
Chairman | Fikret Orman |
Manager | Şenol Güneş |
League | Süper Lig |
2015–16 | 1st |
Website | Club home page |
Active departments of Beşiktaş | ||
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Athletics | Basketball (Men's) (Women's) |
Boxing |
Bridge | Chess | e-Sports |
Football (Men's) (Women's) |
Gymnastics | Handball (Men's) |
Rowing | Table tennis | Volleyball (Men's) (Women's) |
Wheelchair Basketball | Wrestling |
Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü (Turkish pronunciation: [beˈʃiktaʃ], English: Beşiktaş Gymnastics Club), known as simply Beşiktaş (pronounced: Beshiktash), is a Turkish sports club founded in 1903, and based in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul.
The club's football team is one of the most successful teams in Turkey, having never been relegated to a lower division. The club last won the Turkish Süper Lig championship during the 2015–16 season.
The home ground of Beşiktaş is Vodafone Arena, a 41,903 all-seater capacity stadium located next to Dolmabahçe Palace.
The club also competes in other branches including basketball, volleyball, handball, athletics, boxing, wrestling, chess, bridge, gymnastics, rowing, table tennis, paralympic sports, eSports and beach football.
Beşiktaş was established in 1903 during the late Ottoman period. A group of 22 young individuals gathered on certain days of the week to perform bodily exercises in the Serencebey neighborhood of Beşiktaş. They began in the fall of 1902, in the garden of the mansion of Osman Paşa, who was then a part of the Medine Guard. The various sporting activities that these youths participated in included the horizontal bar, parallel bar, wrestling, weight lifting and gymnastics. They included such members as the sons of Osman Paşa, Mehmet Şamil and Hüseyin Bereket, and other youths of the neighborhood – Ahmet Fetgeri, Mehmet Ali Fetgeri, Nazım Nazif, Cemil Feti and Şevket. At that time, the Sultan Abdul Hamid II was having secret agents go around the city, reporting on any gatherings that might be political in nature. When these agents heard about the group, a raid was conducted and the exercising youths were taken to the police station. The tense situation was relaxed as some of these youths were close to palace officers. Since football was in disfavor in those days, they only participated in bodily exercises. In fact, Şehzade Abdülhalim, who had relations with the Palace, supported these youths and started to watch their practices frequently. Famous boxer and wrestler Kenan Bey came to the practices and started to show the group wrestling and boxing tricks.