Göztepe A.Ş.

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Göztepe A.Ş. are a Turkish sports club in Güzelyalı, İzmir. Goztepe were the first Turkish football club to ever reach a semi-final in a European Cup Competition in 1968.

The club enjoyed their best success between the years 1963-1971 under the supervision of the legendary coach Adnan Suvari. Their famous 11 during this period of success is still remembered today: Ali Artuner, Mehmet "Junior" Işıkal, Cağlayan Derebaşı, Huseyin Yazıcı, Mehmet "Senior" Aydın, Nevzat "English" Guzelırmak, Nihat Yayöz, Ertan Öznur, Fevzi Zevzem, Gürsel Aksel, Halil Kiraz.

Goztepe lived through immense financial troubles since 2002. Due to the inability to reduce their outstanding debt, the football club have been banned from signing new players, which resulted in a drastic free fall with the team being relegated 4 times in the last 5 seasons. On April 21st, 2007, they lost their last home game 2-0 against Aliağa Belediyespor in Turkish 3rd Division and were relegated to the Izmir Super Amateur Division.

On August 20th, 2007, the club have been sold in an auction to an Istanbul based business conglomerate Altinbas Group. The new owner, businessman Imam Altinbas, has vowed to take Goztepe back to the Turkish Super League, making them one of the top five clubs in Turkish football. The new owners of the club have been first received by the local fan base with some suspicion, although there have been recent calls for solidarity and cooperation under the new ownership.

Goztepe are one of the last examples of an authentic neighborhood club, located in the Guzelyali neighborhood of Izmir. They have one of the most devoted and die-hard fan bases in Turkey, despite their recent downfall. In terms of their fan base and attendance figures for their games, they are behind only the three Istanbul giants (Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas). Even their games in the Amateur Division attract more fans than most clubs in the Turkish Super League. She won participitation to Turkish Amateur Championship in 2007-2008 season but eliminated by Ayazağaspor after penalty shoots as 6-5, total as 7-6 in Eskişehir. Göztepe-Ayazağaspor match was resulted 1-1. Göztepe remained in İzmir Super Amateur League.

The main rivals of Goztepe are the city rivals Karşıyaka S.K.. Their game on May 16th 1981, when both teams were chasing the title in the Turkish Second Division, has attracted an audience of 80,000, which is a world record in a Second Division football game, also cited in Guinness World Records.