On This Day – 24th April
Turkish football fans are known for their passionate and wild fans who take their football very seriously.
On this day back in 1996, an incident at the fierce Istanbul derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce went down in Turkish football folklore.
Former Liverpool and Scotland international Graeme Souness became manager of Galatasaray in June 1995. This came a year after leaving Liverpool, where he had a disappointing three years at the club as manager.
He had a better time in Turkey, reaching the Turkish Cup Final in his first and only season.
Galatasaray faced their main rivals Fenerbahce in the Final, which was played over two legs. Fenerbahce were the favourites to win the trophy but Galatasaray won the first leg 1-0 in front of their home fans, courtesy of a penalty from Dean Saunders.
The second leg was played at Fenerbahce’s home ground and the home side were winning at the end of 90 minutes. Extra-Time was needed to decide the winner.
With four minutes of extra-time remaining, Deans Saunders scored a dramatic winner for the visitors. The home fans were raging as they had to watch their most-hated rivals celebrate winning the Cup in their own stadium.
The Galatasaray players went over and began celebrating in front of their small section of fans. A few flags were thrown down from the stands for the players to wave.
Manager Graeme Souness took one of the flags and ran with it to the centre circle. After a couple of attempts, he managed to stick the flag into the centre spot of the pitch.
The home fans were livid and baying for Souness’s blood. Some of the fans began to push their way to the front of the stands and shouting abuse at the Scot. Turkish police with riot gear had to form a guard with their shields to block any missiles that might get thrown towards the tunnel.
In Turkey, the vision of Souness planting the flag on the enemy’s turf drew comparisons to Turkish hero Ulubati Hasan.
Hasan was killed as he planted the Ottoman flag at the end of the Siege of Constantinople in 1453. The former Galatasary manager became known as Ulubati Souness!
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