Fenerbahçe Stadium History

Before Fenerbahçe Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadyumu was built , the field was known as Papazın Çayırı. The field, however, became the very first football pitch of Turkey, where the first league games of the Istanbul Football League were all held successively. In 1908, local teams of the league needed a regular soccer field, so this land was leased from the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II for 30 Ottoman gold pounds a year. The total construction cost was 3,000 Ottoman gold pounds. The name was changed to the Union Club Field after the club which made the highest donation for the construction.
The Union Club Field was used by many teams in İstanbul, including the owner, Union Club (which changed its name to İttihatspor after World War I), Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray and Beşiktaş. However, it had lost its importance when a bigger venue, the Taksim Stadium, was built in 1922, inside the courtyard of the historic Taksim Topçu Kışlası (Taksim Artillery Barracks), which was located at the present-day Taksim Gezi Parkı (Taksim Park).
İttihatspor (which had close relations with the political İttihat ve Terakki), was forced to sell it to the state, in which Şükrü Saracoğlu was a member of the CHP government. Thus, the ownership of the stadium passed to the state, but the field was immediately leased to Fenerbahçe. Later, on May 27th 1933, Fenerbahçe purchased the stadium from the government when Şükrü Saracoğlu was the President of Fenerbahçe, for either the symbolic amount of 1 TL or the worth of the stadium which was 9000 TL.
The name of the field was changed to Fenerbahçe Stadium, and this made Fenerbahçe SK the first football club in Turkey to own its stadium, with the help of the Şükrü Saracoğlu government. In the following years, Fenerbahçe SK renovated the stadium and increased its seating capacity. By the year 1949, Fenerbahçe Stadium was the largest football venue in Turkey, with a seating capacity of 25,000.
The name of the stadium was changed once more in 1998, becoming Fenerbahçe Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, named after Fenerbahçe's legendary chairman and Turkey's 6th Prime Minister Şükrü Saracoğlu. In 1999, the latest round of renovations and capacity increasing projects started. The tribunes on the four sides of the stadium were torn down one at a time, as the Turkish Super League seasons progressed, and the entire renewal and construction project was finalised in 2006, with the immense efforts of the Fenerbahçe president Aziz Yıldırım and the team's board of directors. Since the completion of the enlargement and renewal works in 2006, it is the most attractive, effective and advanced football stadium of Turkey.

Number 10 Alexsandro de Souza

Alexsandro de Souza, (born September 14, 1977 in Curitiba), commonly known as Alex, is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Turkish club Fenerbahçe S.K.. A former captain of the Brazilian national team, he has also played for Coritiba, Palmeiras, Parma, Flamengo and Cruzeiro.
In 1999, IFFHS named Alex the 3rd best striker in the world.