Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (Turkish pronunciation: [ɡaɫatasaˈɾaj ˈspoɾ kulyˈby], Galatasaray Sports Club) is the major Turkish sports club based in Istanbul, most notable for its football section, also known as Galatasaray S.K.. It also fields teams in Athletics, Basketball, Wheelchair basketball, Volleyball, Water polo, Swimming, Rowing, Sailing, Judo, Bridge, Equestrian, Handball, Tennis and Superleague Formula Motorsports. Galatasaray Sports Club is one of the most important members of Galatasaray Community as Galatasaray University and Galatasaray High School.
The football team of the club is the greatest and only European cup winner team in Turkey, holding highest number of Turkish League, TSYD Cup, Turkish Super Cup as well as Turkish Cups. Galatasaray won the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup in 2000.
İhsan Emre Vural and his teammate Ahmet Yumrukaya became the first world-champions in the history of Turkey when they finished first in the 2004 Under 23 World Rowing Championships held in Poznań, Poland. The club's Wheelchair Basketball team won the Champions Cup in 2008, 2009 and 2011. They also won Kitakyushu Champions Cup and became world champion in 2008, 2009 and 2011.Galatasaray women's basketball team won the FIBA Eurocup 2009.
Hamit Altıntop (Turkish pronunciation: [häˈmit äɫˈtɯnto̞p]; born 8 December 1982) is a German-born Turkish professional footballer who plays for Real Madrid in La Liga. He is a versatile midfielder who can play either in a defending or attacking role and on both flanks. He is well known for his flair of long-shot ability, as shown when he played for Schalke 04 and Bayern Munich. He is the identical twin brother of footballer Halil Altıntop, who was born 10 minutes after Hamit.
Altıntop was part of the Turkey squad that reached the semi-finals of Euro 2008. After the tournament he was voted as part of the 23-man Team of the tournament awards. He won the 2010 FIFA Puskás Award for scoring the best goal of the season in an UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match against Kazakhstan in a 3–0 win for his country.
Altıntop started his professional career in local German club Wattenscheid in 2000 along with his brother. As successful performances grabbed the attention of bigger clubs, he was transferred to Schalke 04 in 2003, where he played in a primarily defensive midfield role. In the 2006–07 summer transfer window, Schalke signed his brother Halil from Kaiserslautern. Schalke came second in the Bundesliga, only pipped by VfB Stuttgart by two points.
Daniel Nii Tackie Mensah "Danny" Welbeck (born 26 November 1990) is an English footballer who plays for Manchester United and the England national team. He is a centre forward who can also play on the wing.
Welbeck made his way through the youth teams at Manchester United before making his senior debut in 2008 and scoring in the process. He has since gone on to win the 2008–09 Football League Cup and the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup before being sent on loan to Preston North End and more recently Sunderland.
He made his senior England debut in March 2011 in a 1–1 friendly draw against Ghana.
Born in Longsight, Manchester, England, to Ghanaian parents, Welbeck was first spotted by Manchester United as a six year-old. He joined United during the 2005–06 season,[citation needed] making his debut for the club's Under-18 side on 8 April 2006 in a league match against Sunderland. He then came on as a substitute in the next game, before being named as an unused substitute in the team's last two games of the season. The following season, he made a further 28 appearances for the Under-18s, scoring nine goals, including eight appearances and one goal in the FA Youth Cup, in which he helped the team to reach the final, despite being two years younger than some of the other players. He was not handicapped despite suffering from Osgood–Schlatter disease, and was making rapid progress, despite his pneumonia.
Thierry Daniel Henry (French pronunciation: [tjɛʁi ɑ̃ʁi]; born 17 August 1977) is a French footballer who plays as a striker for New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer.
Henry was born in Les Ulis, Essonne (a suburb of Paris) where he played for an array of local sides as a youngster and showed great promise as a goal-scorer. He was spotted by AS Monaco in 1990 and signed instantly, making his professional debut in 1994. Good form led to an international call-up in 1998, after which he signed for the Serie A defending champions Juventus. He had a disappointing season playing on the wing, before joining Arsenal for £11 million in 1999.
It was at Arsenal that Henry made his name as a world-class footballer. Despite initially struggling in the Premier League, he emerged as Arsenal's top goal-scorer for almost every season of his tenure there. Under long-time mentor and coach Arsène Wenger, Henry became a prolific striker and Arsenal's all-time leading scorer with 228 goals in all competitions. The Frenchman won two league titles and three FA Cups with the Gunners; he was nominated for the FIFA World Player of the Year twice, was named the PFA Players' Player of the Year twice, and the FWA Footballer of the Year three times. Henry spent his final two seasons with Arsenal as club captain, leading them to the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final.