Fatih Karagumruk

Karagümrük were founded in the spring of 1926, when local figures such as Muhtar Bey, Alaettin Bey, Nazmi Bey, Bedri Bey and Karagümrüklü Abdullah Bey brought together the youth groups Açıksema Gençleri and Karagümrük Gençleri to form a sports club first registered as Karagümrük İdman Yurdu. The first president was Arnavut Fevzi Efendi, and a clubhouse was opened on İskembeci Malik Street after a neighbourhood fund-raising drive.

During the same period the club adopted red and black as its colours—chosen in tribute to the local fire brigade (tulumbacılar), whose crews traditionally wore red shirts and black shorts in the Karagümrük quarter.

In the early 1930s the team began to make a name in Istanbul competitions. Contemporary fixtures show Karagümrük competing against leading city sides and taking part in civic cups such as the Halk Fırkası Kupası (Republican People’s Party Cup). In 1932 the club also hosted the Thessaloniki Representative XI in a friendly at their own ground, winning 3–2—one of the earliest occasions a non-affiliated Istanbul club brought a foreign representative side to the city.

Through the 1930s and early 1940s Karagümrük İdman Yurdu competed largely in the amateur ranks associated with the Istanbul set-up. After the 1941–42 season the club were champions in their class and applied for inclusion in the newly professional structure; however, a municipal allocation decision transferred the use of the neighbourhood ground to Vefa SK, forcing Karagümrük to suspend activities until after the war.

On 14 July 1946 the club formally re-started as Karagümrük Gençlik Kulübü, beginning again from the lower city divisions and climbing back through successive championships. Within three seasons they had advanced to the second tier of the Istanbul system and re-established themselves as a permanent presence in the city’s competitive football scene, setting the stage for the professional decades that followed.

From the mid-1950s Karagümrük were among the Istanbul clubs pushing for the professionalisation and national coordination of league football. The club were active in the creation and early organisation of the second-tier framework that fed into the national structure which the Turkish Football Federation built across the late 1950s and 1960s.

Karagümrük’s best spell of the period came in the 1957–58 and 1958–59 campaigns in the Istanbul professional set-up, when the team topped the Istanbul Professional Second League and regularly contended with the city’s heavyweights in derby-like fixtures played in front of large crowds. The club also took part in one of the most talked-about domestic transfers of the era by signing midfielder Kadri Aytaç from Galatasaray for a reported 57,500₺, a record fee at the time and a move that helped define the market for professional players in Turkey. In those seasons the side remained unbeaten deep into the first half of the campaign before late-autumn defeats against title rivals ended their streaks.

The club cultivated a strong supporter identity in this era; Karagümrük’s songs and red-black imagery spread well beyond the neighbourhood, and the club’s football branch occasionally lent know-how and symbolic support to rising Anatolian outfits of the period as the professional game expanded inland.

By the early 1980s, however, finances began to bite. Karagümrük slipped into the Third League, then ground out consecutive promotions in 1981–82 and 1982–83 to climb back to the second and then first-tier structures of the day, only to be relegated again in 1983–84 as squad depth and budgets lagged behind rivals. On 28 April 1985 the association officially adopted the Fatih Karagümrük name used today.

Despite producing a line of notable players under the influential coach Osman “Lağim Osman” Odman including future internationals who later joined Fenerbahçe, Trabzonspor and Beşiktaş, the club could not stabilise structurally as Turkish football commercialised in the 1990s. Economic strain led to multiple relegations: by 1996–97 Karagümrük had fallen to the Amateur League, then narrowly missed out on immediate promotion in 1999–2000, before returning to the Third League in the early 2000s. A brief sponsorship arrangement with Japanese electronics firm Kyoto n the early 2000s offered respite but lasted only one season; after a short revival the club again slid to the Amateur level in 2004–05, and remained outside the professional ladder for several years.

The reset finally arrived in 2011–12 when Karagümrük captured the Regional Amateur League title and earned promotion back to the Third League, laying the foundations for the corporate restructuring and successive climbs that would follow later in the decade.

After returning to the professional pyramid in 2012–13, Fatih Karagümrük modernised its legal and sporting structure. On 20 June 2012 the club registered a new corporate entity and emblem with the Turkish Football Federation (TFF); the football branch of the association was transferred to “Fatih Karagümrük Sportif Faaliyetler Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş.” to cover professional operations.

In 2013–14 the team finished fourth in their Third League group and advanced through the play-offs. Karagümrük defeated Bergama Belediyespor in the semi-finals and overcame 1920 Maraşspor in the final to claim the play-off championship and promotion to the Second League.

During the mid-2010s, businessman Cengiz Günaydın assumed ownership and financed work on facilities and stadium matters; however, continuing financial strain led him to signal that the club was for sale. On 26 June 2018 former sporting director Süleyman Hurma purchased a controlling stake (reported as 71%) and was elected club president, initiating a more professional governance model.

The 2018–19 season began with Yusuf Şimşek as head coach, but he resigned after six league matches. Cüneyt Dumlupınar took charge and the team finished second in their group to reach the play-offs. Karagümrük then eliminated Şanlıurfaspor in the quarter-finals and Manisa FK in the semi-finals, before defeating Sakaryaspor in the final to secure promotion to the First League.

The 2019–20 campaign opened with rapid coaching changes: after Cüneyt Dumlupınar’s brief spell, captain Erkan Zengin acted as interim before veteran Giray Bulak was appointed in late November; results remained poor and Bulak departed in December. In January 2020, chairman Süleyman Hurma turned to club great Şenol Can. Karagümrük surged to the promotion play-offs in the First League and defeated Akhisar Belediyespor in the semi-finals and Adana Demirspor on penalties in the final to return to the top flight after 36 years.

Back in the Süper Lig in 2020–21, Karagümrük finished eighth with 60 points, an impressive return for a newly promoted side under Şenol Can. The following season saw a mid-year transition: young Italian coach Francesco Farioli arrived during 2021–22, steering the team to mid-table safety and a possession-heavy style that drew notice in Turkey.

In June 2022 the club hired Andrea Pirlo, who guided Karagümrük to a top-half finish (7th) in 2022–23, the best league placing of the modern era for the side. After Pirlo’s departure that summer, the club began 2023–24 with Alparslan Erdem and then appointed Shota Arveladze in October; results remained volatile and Karagümrük were relegated on the final day despite a 3–1 win at Beşiktaş.

On 10 March 2024, the club announced Tolunay Kafkas as head coach following Arveladze’s resignation. Relegated to the First League for 2024–25, Karagümrük regrouped and won the promotion play-off final on 29 May 2025, defeating Bandırmaspor 3–1 after extra time to secure an immediate return to the Süper Lig for 2025–26.

Through this period the club continued to stage most home fixtures at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, with occasional moves prompted by stadium availability and licensing requirements, as historic Vefa Stadium did not consistently meet top-tier criteria.