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Probably no other sporting event captures the world’s imagination like the FIFA World Cup.

For Turkish people, a dream came true last summer: the national football team’s outstanding performance gave Turkey third place at the FIFA World Cup 2002.

Football was introduced to Turkey by cotton and tobacco traders from England in the 19th century. According to Turkish Football Association records, the first soccer game in the country took place in 1875, but only English and Greek players took part in the action in the early days. Even in the first Turkish league, the Istanbul League, matches were played between the English and Greeks. The first Turkish team played a match against a Greek squad on October 26, 1901.

Four years later, the country’s most famous team, Galatasaray, was founded, becoming the first Turkish club team in the Istanbul Football League.

After World War 1, the popularity of football spread nationwide and the Turkish Football Association was established in1923. It became a member of soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, the same year. In Europe, however, Turkey failed to make an impact on the soccer scene for decades. The European football body UEFA was founded in 1954the year Turkey made its World Cup debut only to be knocked out in the first round – but the country had to wait until 1962 to gain membership.

In 1993, however, Galatasaray signaled a change in Turkish football when it ousted soccer giants Manchester United from the European Champions Cup. The standard of Turkish football continued to improve in the 1990s, and the national team advanced to the quarter finals of Euro 2000. In the same year, Galatasaray won the UEFA Cup with a victory over English Premier League side Arsenal and clinched the European Super Cup with a surprise win over Spanish soccer powerhouse Real Madrid. The club’s success caught the eye of European clubs, and Turkish players began moving to big clubs in European leagues, including Italy’s Serie A. Hakan Sükür, the Turkish league’s top scorer for three consecutive seasons, was one of the first to go, transferring to Inter Milan then Parma.

In world Cup 2002, after qualifying for the second round in Group C composing of Brazil, China and Costa Rica, Turkey beat one of the hosts of the tournament, Japan 1-0, then played with Senegal and beat 1-0, lost the semi final match against Brazil 0-1, and won the match against South Korea 3-2 and won the title of the third best team in the world. A combination of determination, confidence, hard work and good team play lies behind the success of the Turkish football team. Congratulations to the coach Senol Günes and all the players.,

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