Kasımpaşa S.K.

Kasımpaşa Spor Kulübü. (, Kasımpaşa Sports Club), commercially registered as Kasımpaşa Sportif Faaliyetleri A.Ş., colloquially known Kasımpaşa, is a Turkish professional football club located in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul.

The club plays their home games in the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Stadium in Kasımpaşa, a neighbourhood of the district of Beyoğlu. As of 2023–24 season, Kasımpaşa is one of eight Süper Lig clubs representing Istanbul, along with Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray, Beşiktaş, Fatih Karagümrük S.K., Pendikspor, İstanbulspor and İstanbul Başakşehir. In November 2021, the club officially celebrated its centenary of existence.

History
The club was found as "Kasımpaşa Gençik Kulubü" in 1921, following the merger of two local clubs, namely "Altuntuğ" and "Kasımpaşa Terbiye-i Bedeniye Kulübü". They played their first competitive match in 1923–1924 season. The club played in the Istanbul First League between 1939–1945 and 1946–1959. The club was promoted to the Türkiye Ligi in 1959 and remained there for 5 seasons, where their best finish was 5th in 1961–62 season.

The team promoted back to back from TFF Third League to Süper Lig between the seasons 2004-05 and 2006–07, and the club still holds the Turkish record of most consecutive promotions.

After 43 years, on 30 May 2007, the team was promoted to the Süper Lig for the second time in their history. In a dramatic match against Altay, Kasımpaşa came from behind twice to force a penalty shootout, which they won 4–3. They competed in the Süper Lig in the 2007–08 season, but were relegated back to the TFF First League.

Kasımpaşa was promoted to Süper Lig for the third time in the club's history on 17 May 2009, beating Karşıyaka 2–1 after extra time in Ankara. The team remained in the top tier of Turkish football and managed to finish in top ten in the 2009–10 season, during which they beat Fenerbahçe away from home 3–1 and Beşiktaş away in the Turkish Cup by the same score. They also beat Trabzonspor at home in the league by the same 3–1 scoreline.

By the beginning of the 2010–11 season, Kasımpaşa lost some of their important players due to the decisions of coach Yılmaz Vural just before the season started. After the squad weakened, the team went on a run of poor results and were relegated at the end of the season. On October 12, 2011, 96% of the shares of Kasımpaşa had been sold to its current owner Turgay Ciner for 1 million Turkish Liras (approximately €400,000 at that time). In the 2011–12 season, the team made a rapid return to Süper Lig after play-off matches that were played in Ankara. They first beat Konyaspor 2–0 away and 4–0 at home. Then they played the final against Adanaspor and beat them 3–2 after a dramatic match on 27 May 2012. This was their 3rd consecutive victory in play-off finals since 2007. Thus, they represented their neighbourhood in Süper Lig in the 2012–13 season. Despite challenging for a UEFA Europa League spot throughout the season, rising as a dark horse in the league, a series of dismal performances in the final few matches saw Kasımpaşa finishing sixth in the table, five points away from Bursaspor on fourth, the final Europa League qualification spot. The club missed their chance to play in UEFA Europa League two more times in 2014 and 2016.

In the 2018–19 season, the team was on the chase of the title with Mbaye Diagne, who had already scored 20 goals by the end of the January transfer window, but after Diagne was sold to Galatasaray for €10 million, which is also the club's record of received transfer fee from a player, the club's performance went downhill and finished that season 14th and survived relegation by only 2 points.

In the 2021–22 season, the team went on an ultimate survival run that; they went up from being last in December 2021 with only 2 wins to finishing the season 11th by having 13 wins and 3 draws from out of their remaining 21 gameweeks. Not only that, but also Umut Bozok became the top scorer of the same season by scoring 20 goals in total.

Since 2012, Kasımpaşa have lured well-known players such as Ryan Babel from Ajax, former Swedish national team goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson, Trézéguet and strikers Eren Derdiyok from the Bundesliga and Mbaye Diagne and have continued to invest and strengthen their squad. The club have also developed many Turkish national team players in various age categories from their youth squad, such as Eren Elmalı and Yasin Özcan.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Stadium
Named after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the stadium is also known as Kasımpaşa Stadium. It has a seating capacity of about 14,000.

Kasımpaşa Kemerburgaz Tesisleri
The club also makes use of the facilities of the Kasımpaşa Sports Club in Kemerburgaz.

Honours

 * 2. Lig
 * Winners (1): 2005–06
 * 3. Lig
 * Winners (3): 1988–89, 1996–97, 2004–05

League affiliation

 * Süper Lig: 1959–64, 2007–08, 2009–11, 2012–
 * TFF First League 1964–68, 1989–92, 1997–2000, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2011–12
 * TFF Second League: 1968–79, 1984–89, 1992–97, 2000–01, 2005–06
 * TFF Third League: 2001–05
 * Amateur Level: 1979–1984