First Division. The usual 4 teams in separate battle between themselves at the top, followed by one team quite weaker than the leaders, yet, much stronger than the rest of the league. Three outsiders at the bottom and the remaining 9 clubs practically trying to avoid relegation – the difference between the 6th and the relegated 14th was only 3 points in championship giving 3 points for a win! Five teams relegated this season because of reduction of the top league to 16 teams for the next one.
Sakaryaspor – last with 21 points and relegated.
Adana Demirspor – 17th with 23 points and out.
Samsunspor – 16th with 27 points and relegated.
Altay – 15th with 35 points and relegated.
Malatyaspor – 14th with 44 points and relegated. What a cruel fate for Brazilian goalkeeper Carlos: from playing World Cup finals in 1986 to relegation in Turkey.
Boluspor – 13th with 45 points.
Adanaspor – 12th with 45 points.
Genclerbirligi – 11th with 45 points. Not an impressive season, but there was something interesting: their foreigners were Argentines and if Claudio Zacarias and Jorge Rinaldi did not ring any bells, Adrian Domenech was different case – the 30-years defender was key part of the rise of Argentinos Juniors in the late 1970s and later captained them to their greatest success. Played along Diego Maradona at first, achieved success without him. Now Turkish football was eyeing not only Europeans, but was also in position to hire good South Americans too.
Zeytinburnuspor – 10th with 45 points.
MKE Ankaragucu – 9th with 46 points.
Karsiyaka – 8th with 46 points.
Konyaspor – 7th with 46 points.
Bursaspor – 6th with 47 points. Perhaps never in real danger of relegation, but… one wrong step and instead of honorable 6th place they would have been going down to Second Division.
Sariyer – 5th with 59 points. Wonderful season, but in its own terms – much stronger than those below, Sariyer was was below the leaders too.
Galatasaray – 4th with 63 points and therefore not a season to brag about… Standing from left: Zoran Simovic, Ismail Demiriz, Savas Koc, Cuneyt Tanman, Erhan Onal, Semih Yuvakuran. Front: Mirsad Kovacevic, Metin Yildiz, Tanju Colak, Ugur Tutuneker, Xhevat Prekazi. Not only with three worthy Yugoslavians – Simovic, Prekazi, and Kovacevic – but having the greatest Turkish player at this period: Tanju Colak. The former West German star Sigi Held coached them.
Trabzonspor – now firmly established as one of the 4 leading clubs, they finished 3rd with 68 points this season. With 36-years old Jean-Marie Pfaff between the goalposts and Yugoslavian midfielder Miodrag Jesic coached by Belgian Urbain Braems.
Fenerbahce – eventually lost the battle for the title and finished 2nd with 70 points. Todor Veselinovic coached the national team of Yugoslavia a few years back and captain Toni Schumacher, now 35 years old, does not need an introduction. The new recruit came from USSR – Ivan Vishnevsky. The 32-years old defender shortly before reached the national team of USSR and on the strength of that got Fenerbahce interested. There were two more foreigners in the squad: Danish national team striker Henrik Nielsen and young midfielder from West Germany: Mustafa Kurt. As his name suggests, he was ethnic Turk, although born and raised in West Germany – ‘oriundo’, easy to naturalize and present as domestic player.
Besiktas not only managed to prevail over their rivals, but also succeeded in building a good cushion – they finished 5 points ahead of Fenerbahce. 23 wins, 6 ties, 5 losses, 77-20 scoring record and 75 points. Best in everything: most wins, most goals scored, the best defensive record , astonishing goal-difference. And that achieved with foreign help seemingly on lower order compared to the imports of the others: the Englsih coach Gordon Milne brought with himself British players: 31-years old Scotish defender Ian Wilson and 33-years old English midfielder Alan Walsh. The Yugoslavian goalkeeper Rade Zalad, already 33-years, was with the club for some years now, but his place in the first team was no longer secure as the photo shows: seemingly, still 2 foreign players were allowed to play in Turkey and Besiktas had one too many. But that was minor problem, if a problem at all – Milne lead determined and motivated team and won the championship.
This squad won the 13th title for Besiktas, but as the photo shows, that was not all.