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Eskişehirspor
Full name	Eskişehirspor Kulübü
Nickname(s)	Es-Es; Kırmızı Şimşekler (Red Lightnings); Star of Anatolia
Founded	1965
Ground	Atatürk Stadyumu,; Eskişehir, Turkey; (Capacity: 18,495)
Chairman	Halil Ünal
Manager	Rıza Çalımbay
League	Turkcell Super League
2008-09	Turkcell Super League, 11th

Eskişehirspor is a local football club in Eskişehir, Turkey. Also known as Kırmızı Şimşekler (Red Lightnings) or The Star of Anatolia. The club was founded in 1965 and started a football revolution in Anatolia. The club has a large group of supporters. Their slogan is "Es Es Es Ki Ki Ki , Eski Eski Es!". Eskişehirspor started a long term stay in the first league in Turkey when they were founded. This term lasted 16 years until they were relegated. After being out of the Turkish Super League for 12 years the club won the Bank Asya First League play-offs^[1] and were promoted in May of 2008.

[edit] History

Eskişehirspor were founded by merging regional teams of İdman Yurdu, Akademi Gençlik and Yıldıztepe and was admitted in Second League in 1965-1966 season. They promoted to First League in first professional season. Eskişehirspor became one of the better historically rich Anatolian clubs despite having never won the Süperlig between 1968-1975. They were runners-up in 1968-1969, 1969-1970, and 1971-1972 seasons. Eskişehirspor won the Turkish Cup in the 1969-1970 season by beating Bursaspor by 4-3 (1-2, 3-1) aggregate and a year after that in 1970-1971 season they lifted the Cumhurbaskanligi Kupasi (President Cup) by beating Galatasaray once again by the same scoreline 3-2 with all goals coming from the Eskişehirspor legend himself Fethi Heper. After that, they started to slowly lose their success. Eskişehirspor relegated to Second League in 1981-82 season after an eventful match against Beşiktaş at Round 34, which was also last round. The match was halted at 78th minute due to intemperance of Eskişehirspor's supporters, when after Beşiktaş's midfielder Ziya's goal at 76th minute, and match score was changed to 2-1 for Beşiktaş. Eskişehirspor was announced 3-0 unanimously lost by TFF and relegated as 1 point behind of Gaziantepspor. Also, Beşiktaş finished their championship yearning since 1967. Eskişehirspor returned 1st League in 1983-84 season. They reached Federation Cup final in 1986-87 season but lost against Gençlerbirliği by 6-2 aggregate. They won Chancellor Cup against Beşiktaş after penalty shoots as 4-2, total 6-4. This match was resulted 2-2.

They relegated again Second League after 1-0 lost against Galatasaray, which goal scored by Tanju at Round 38, which was also last round in 1988-89 season. Eskişehirspor collected 41 points and remained behind of Altay by average. They relegated to Third League once after finishing third from last at Group A of 2nd League in 1991-92 season. However, they returned to Second League next season after finishing 1st at Group 5 of Third League.

Eskişehirspor finished 1st at 3rd Group in Second League and qualified for Promotion Group in 1994-95 season. They finished 3rd and qualified to Extra Play-Off. They defeated successively Erzurumspor as 2-1, Adanaspor as 3-2, which after extra time and Aydınspor as 2-1 and returned to First League. Eskişehirspor's new adventure at First League lasted only one season and relegated after losing against Trabzonspor despite a good start against İstanbulspor and this match finished 3-1 for Eskişehirspor. Eskişehirspor qualified to Promotion Play-Off but didn't return to First League in 1997-98. They escaped from relegation to Third League danger and Petrolofisi relegated in 1998-99 season. Eskişehirspor finally qualified to Second League Category B (later Second League), who is third level of Turkish League, after 2000-2001 season.

[edit] Promotion to Super League

Eskişehirspor finished 1st in 3rd Group of Iddaa League B and played in Promotion Group in 2005-2006 season. They finished 3rd behind of Kasımpaşa and Gençlerbirliği Asaşspor and qualified for Extra Play-Off matches. Eskişehirspor's first play off match was against Kardemir Karabükspor. After regular and extra time the match ended in a 0-0 draw. Eskişehirspor advanced to quarter final game after beating them 3-1 in the penalty shoot out. They also defeated Sarıyer after 6-5 in the penalty shoot out. Regular and extra time the match ended in a 0-0 draw before penalty shoot out. They defeated 3-0 Kartalspor in semifinal and Pendikspor in final and promoted to First League. Eskişehirspor finished 13th in 2006-2007 season. After a successful season in the Bank Asya First League, Eskişehirspor finished in 4th place and qualified for the play-offs in 2007-2008 season. The play-offs determine who is going to take the third and final promotion spot for the Turkish Super League.

Eskişehirspor's first play off match was against Diyarbakirspor. After regular and extra time the match ended in a 0-0 draw. Eskişehirspor advanced to the final game after beating Diyarbakirspor 6-5 in the penalty shoot out.

The final match against Boluspor was held in Istanbul at the Besiktas Inonu Stadium. At the end of 90 minutes Eskişehirspor were promoted to the Turkish Super League with their 2-0 win. Eskisehirspor's goals were scored by Doğa Kaya and Coşkun Birdal.

On 3 June 2008, Halil Ünal was elected as the new chairman of Eskişehirspor.

^[2].Rıza Çalımbay was appointed as manager for the 2008-2009 season.^[3]. Eskişehirspor beat Galatasaray 2 times (4-2 at home and 1-0 at away) and draw 2-2 with Fenerbahçe at home in this season and secured Super League position for 2009-2010 season despite 5-2 loss to Trabzonspor at home match on 24 May 2009.

[edit] Achievements

Turkcell Super League
- Runners-up (3): 1969–1970, 1970–1971, 1972–1973

Fortis Turkey Cup
- Winners (1): 1970–1971
- Runners-up (2): 1969–1970, 1986–1987

Turkish Super Cup / President Cup:
- Winners (1): 1970–1971

Chancellor Cup:
- Winners (3): 1965–1966, 1971–1972, 1986–1987

[edit] Great successes in Europe

One of Eskişehirspor's greatest matches took place in the 1970-71 UEFA Cup against Sevilla FC. Eskişehirspor lost the first match 1-0 in Sevilla, but won the second 3-1 in Eskişehir to win 3-2 on aggregate. All three goals from Eskisehirspor came after the 80th minute by Fethi Heper.

[edit] League participations

Turkish Super League: 1966-1982, 1984-1989, 1995-1996, 2008-
TFF First League: 1965-1966, 1982-1984, 1989-1992, 1993-1995, 1996-2001, 2006-2008
TFF Second League: 1992-1993, 2001-2006

[edit] Current squad

As of 30 September 2009.

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Vanja Ivesa
3	DF	Murat Önür
4	DF	Tarık Mayhoş
5	DF	Abdel Zaher El Saka
6	MF	Veysel Sarı
7	DF	Volkan Yaman
8	MF	Ragıp Başdağ
10	FW	Mehmet Yılmaz
11	FW	Souleymane Youla
13	DF	Safet Nadarević
14	MF	Alper Potuk
15	MF	Stjepan Poljak
17	FW	Burak Yılmaz
18	DF	Hüseyin Güngör
19	FW	Serdar Özbayraktar

No.	Position	Player
20	MF	Doğa Kaya
21	MF	Bülent Kocabey
22	GK	Kayacan Erdoğan
26	FW	Arda Dinçer
27	DF	Luka Vučko
29	GK	Atilla Koca
38	MF	Selçuk Alibaz
51	DF	Koray Arslan
55	MF	Bülent Ertuğrul
58	MF	Adem Sarı
75	DF	Sezgin Coşkun
99	FW	Ümit Karan

[edit] 2009-10 Transfers in

No.		Position	Player
		FW	Ümit Karan (from Galatasaray)
		DF	Volkan Yaman (from Galatasaray)
		FW	Souleymane Youla (from Lille OSC)
		FW	Burak Yılmaz (from Fenerbahçe)
		FW	Mehmet Yılmaz (from Ankaragücü)
		MF	Ragıp Başdağ (from Kayserispor)
		GK	Atilla Koca (from Sakaryaspor)
		MF	Adem Sarı (from SC Pfullendorf)
		MF	Veysel Sarı (from Beylerbeyi)

[edit] 2009-10 Transfers out

No.		Position	Player
		DF	Tayfun Türkmen (to free agent)
		MF	Serkan Özdemir (to free agent)
		MF	Emre Toraman (to Kaşimpaşa)
		FW	Batuhan Karadeniz (to Beşiktaş)
		MF	Engin Baytar (to Trabzonspor)
		DF	Emre Özkan (to Besiktas)
		FW	Ömer Yalçın (to Boluspor)
		FW	Anderson (to FC Seoul)
		FW	Krunoslav Lovrek (to Unknown)

[edit] 2009-10 Loan out

No.		Position	Player
		DF	Ahmet Sağlam (to Göztepe A.Ş.)
		GK	Sinan Ören (to Göztepe A.Ş.)
		FW	Alper Balaban (to Göztepe A.Ş.)
		MF	Özgür Öçal (to Kasımpaşa S.K.)
		FW	Abdullah Halman (to Şanlıurfa S.K.)