Bursaspor

Bursa is Yeşil Bursa, Green Bursa, the first Ottoman capital sitting at the foot of Mount Uludağ, and the city's club dressed to match: green and white stripes since 1963. The Yeşil Timsahlar, the Green Crocodiles, play in a stadium unlike any other on earth, the Timsah Arena, built in the shape of a giant crocodile. Their finest hour came in 2009/10, when Ertuğrul Sağlam's Bursaspor snatched the title from Fenerbahçe by a single point on the final day, becoming only the second Turkish champion from outside Istanbul, after Trabzonspor. The Champions League followed, with Manchester United and Valencia visiting, and then one of European football's most brutal collapses: from champions to the fourth tier in fourteen years, sunk by debt. The response came from the stands, with the legendary Teksas ultras filling grounds even in the lower leagues, and on the pitch: back-to-back promotions in 2025 and 2026, setting a national record along the way as the first Turkish club to win titles in every professional division. The crocodiles are climbing back.