The longing is over; Turkish Super League and European Leagues are starting!
Sports are competitive competitions that bring the masses together, have managed to include organisations with peaceful purposes and have become the favourite of the majority of the society. Basketball and football are my favourite sports. I am looking forward to the start of the (European) season for basketball and football.
Most European leagues in football will start in August and the race that will cover the whole season will be the scene of different excitement every week. One of the leagues I follow closely is the Turkish Super League and on 5 August the doors of the stadiums will be opened to the fans; the stadium lights will be lit and the excitement of the season, which will last until the end of May 2023, will warm all football lovers.
Every league has its pre-start favourite teams. Just like Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain, B.Dortmund and Bayern Munich in Germany, Juventus and Milan in Italy, M.City and Liverpol in England, the Turkish league also has its pre-start favourites. While Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş were the favourites in the past years, recently, the attacking Anatolian teams have started to find as many chances as the favourites in the race.
In 2009, Bursaspor became the fifth team to become the champion of the Turkish Super League. For years, the written and visual media had begun to ask whether the dominance of the so-called Big 3 (Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe, Beşiktaş) was coming to an end; in the following 9 seasons, Galatasaray (5), Fenerbahçe (2) and Beşiktaş (2) won the championship and declared the dominance of Istanbul once again.
In the 2019 - 2020 season, Medipol Başakşehir achieved a new miracle by becoming the league champion. The dominance of Istanbul in football was not over, because Başakşehir was also an Istanbul team, but they became the sixth team to become champions in the league.
In the 2021 - 2022 season, a new miracle took place. Trabzonspor, the Black Sea representative, had won the league championship again after 38 years. After a long break, they celebrated the championship with a magnificent ceremony.
Since 1959, the number of teams that have won the championship in the Turkish Super League is limited to only 6.
These are according to the number of championships they have won;
Galatasaray: 22
Fenerbahce: 19
Besiktas: 16
Trabzonspor: 7
Bursaspor: 1
M.Başakşehir: 1
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Before the start of the new season, it is very difficult to name a favourite team, according to the number of championships won; Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş are the natural favourites. However, Trabzonspor, the last champion, Başakşehir and A. Demirspor are the other favourites of the league with the breakthroughs they have made in recent years.
As in every league, the result of the matches between the favourite teams is as intriguing as the question of who will be the champion. The best example of this is the interest in the outcome of the matches between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe. This means that matches between these two teams (even if they are special matches) are tense and exciting. New players joining the teams are recognised as true Galatasaray or Fenerbahçe fans when they score a goal in a Galatasaray - Fenerbahçe derby.
In the new season, according to the fixtures drawn, the weeks in which the highly anticipated derby will be played;
Week 18: Fenerbahçe - Galatasaray
Week 36: Galatasaray vs Fenerbahçe
Last year, both teams that were only 1 hour away from where I live were relegated. The closest Super League team to where I live is about 6 hours away by car, so in this sense, my chances of watching the matches from the turbine in the new season have decreased.
Can the league give a surprise to a team that has not won a championship until today? Considering the fact that the favourite teams are far from their former strength and have not made enough reinforcements, I think that A. Demirspor has a chance to achieve this. The last champion Trabzonspor can continue from where it left off and add a new one to the number of championships after a long break. How the natural favourites will start the league is also a matter of curiosity; there is very little time left to satisfy the curiosity.
Frankly speaking, I miss spending the whole weekend following the leading European leagues. I am looking forward to seeing the surprises of football as it is played in the stadium and experiencing it in real time with live broadcasts.
The start of the football season for #LaLiga, #SerieA, #Bundesliga, #PremierLeague and dozens more is just around the corner. My heart is in favour of following all the matches from the stadium, feeling the atmosphere of the moment, but financially and morally, this is not possible for me. Instead, I will take my place in front of the screen as a good viewer and watch as many matches as I can.
This season has a different significance for all European Leagues. When each league approaches the half-time, there will be a break of 1 and a half months for the World Cup organisation and all eyes and attention will be on Qatar!