Bursaspor and Their Fairytale Title and Painful Fall
Today we bring you a story that blends a fairy tale with a horror film, as we'll be talking about Bursaspor. This Turkish club surprised many in 2010 by winning their country's league title for the first time, breaking the hegemony of the country's three giants and leaving us with a story not unlike what Leicester City would do a few years later. However, just a few years later, due to numerous management problems, the club suffered a decline that has left them languishing in the lower divisions of Turkish football.
The Birth of a New Club
Unlike other Turkish clubs, Bursaspor is relatively young, having been founded in 1963, while clubs like Galatasaray and Fenerbahce were founded in 1905 and 1907, respectively. Bursaspor was formed from the merger of several clubs located in the Bursa and Izmit area: Acar Idman Yurdu, Istiklal, Pinarspor, Akinspor, and Celikspor. In that same 1963-64 season, it joined the Turkish Football Federation and began playing in the country's football system, starting in the second tier.Having emerged from the merger of so many clubs, Bursaspor was clearly a powerful team from the outset of its journey in professional football, and they achieved promotion in the 1966-67 season as champions of their division. In fact, during its first years in the top tier, the club managed to consistently finish comfortably above mid-table, a remarkable feat for such a young and newly promoted team.
In 1986, they won the Turkish Cup, their first major national trophy and their only one of the 20th century, following a couple of lost finals in the 1970s. After spending several seasons in the second tier, they would return to the Turkish Super League in 2006.
Ertugrul Saglam Takes Charge
Ertugrul Saglam was a striker who came up through the Fenerbahce youth system, although he never played professionally for the club. He spent his career at Gaziantepspor, Samsunspor, and most notably Besiktas, where he played from 1994 to 2000, scoring 101 goals in 217 matches and helping the club win several titles.His playing career ended at Samsunspor, where he immediately began his managerial career. In his first season in charge, he achieved victories over Turkey's three giants (Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, and Besiktas), some by a wide margin.
In 2005, he was signed by newly promoted Kayserispor, where he had a couple of good seasons, helping them qualify for the UEFA Cup through the now-defunct Intertoto Cup. In 2007, his former club, Besiktas, came calling, and he spent a year with them, achieving a third-place finish in the league. However, his European performance was disappointing, particularly after an 8-0 thrashing by Liverpool.
The Season That Changed Everything
Midway through the 2008-09 season, Saglam was signed by Bursaspor, who had been hovering around the middle of the Turkish league table since their return to the top tier. That season they would experience a slight improvement, finishing in 6th place in the league. In the summer of 2009, Bursaspor brought in several reinforcements, albeit with a low investment since most arrived as free agents. They only paid a transfer fee for the Argentinian Pablo Batalla, who would become an important player for the club in the following years.The team made a slightly hesitant start to the season; however, they soon established themselves in the top three of the league and even held first place for several consecutive weeks. Their rival for the league title was Fenerbahce, who went into the final matchday leading the standings with a one-point advantage over Bursaspor, who faced a tough opponent in that final round: Besiktas. Fenerbahce, meanwhile, faced Trabzonspor, who were fighting for a Europa League spot.
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Fenerbahce's Dani Güiza (here playing for RCD Mallorca) scored the match opening goal
This sparked celebrations among the fans at the final whistle of the match against Trabzonspor. A few minutes later, the result was clarified and it became clear that Bursaspor had won, and this generated enormous anger among Fenerbahce fans who began throwing seats onto the pitch and burning certain areas of the stadium, also starting a confrontation with the police. With that, Bursaspor became the fifth club to win the Turkish league (Istanbul Basaksehir would be added to that list in 2020) and the first to do so outside of Istanbul since Trabzonspor did it in 1984.
From Champions to Collapse
Thanks to their league title, Bursaspor qualified for the next edition of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history, although they failed to advance from the group stage, finishing last. That season they finished third in the league and began a period of mostly mid-table finishes in their domestic championship. However, in 2013, Ibrahim Yazici, who had been the club's president since 2007, passed away. This resulted in the club losing significant financial support from several key figures close to Yazici, which in turn triggered a series of mismanagement issues at Bursaspor.In 2019, they returned to the second tier, and after three years and accumulating significant debt and defaults, Bursaspor was relegated to the third tier in 2022. As if this weren't enough, after several administrative and financial penalties, they suffered another relegation in 2024, dropping to the fourth tier of Turkish football. This marked a dramatic fall from Süper Lig champions to the fourth tier in just 14 years, an unprecedented feat in the country and with very few parallels worldwide. Their fourth-tier stint lasted only a year, as they quickly achieved promotion. However, the club is still far from its former glory.