Altay

Mustafa Denizli gave the club its most persistent name: 386 appearances as a player, then a return on the touchline, and his surname now sits on the ground at Alsancak. Under captain Ayfer Elmastaşoğlu, Altay took its first Turkish Cup in 1966-67, then repeated the feat in 1979-80 — each followed by a runners-up finish in the Turkish Super Cup. A domestic double of sorts came in 2006-07, when the Turkish Football Federation Cup went to Izmir, five years after promotion secured through the TFF First League title in 2001-02.

Founded on 16 January 1914 as İstiklal, the club has been known for most of its life simply as Büyük Altay — Great Altay, black and white. Alpay Özalan came through the academy before captaining the Turkish national side; more recently Altay Bayındır followed the same path out of Izmir and into a goalkeeper's shirt at Celta Vigo.

The derby against Göztepe carries a weight the results alone don't explain. On 27 November 2022 it turned uglier than a football match should: pyrotechnics thrown onto the pitch, a fan reaching Altay's goalkeeper Ozan Evrim Özenç, the match abandoned before it could be finished.

Little of that history has cushioned the fall since. A club that once held its own in the Süper Lig has dropped tier by tier, and by the 2024-25 season Büyük Altay found itself in the TFF 3. Lig — a long way down from the cup finals of the 1960s and 1980s, with the climb back the only thing left to play for.