Mihaliccikspor SK

The Porsuk Sports Hall in Eskişehir holds between two and three thousand people, and it is there that Mihaliccikspor SK built the run that took it out of provincial handball altogether. Founded in 2015 in the district of Mihalıççık, the club stayed within reach of that hall until the 2021-2022 season, when its men's team went through the Turkish First League unbeaten and earned the club's only major honour: promotion to the Super League for the first time in its history.

The coach who took them up, Sergey Salin, kept the job into the club's early years at the top level, a decision that mattered once the Super League opponents stopped being provincial sides and became names like Beşiktaş. Getting there was one thing; the squad that had to hold its own once it arrived needed reinforcement, and the club brought in foreign signings such as Louay Makholouf and Achraf Elabed from Tunisia and the Belarusian Artem Skyrba, playing alongside local players like Barış Üregen.

Off the court, the club plays in red and black, and its supporters call the team Siyah Kırmızılı, the black-and-reds, a name that carries no more history than the colours themselves.

Since the promotion, the fixtures that matter most are the ones against clubs with a longer Super League past — Beşiktaş, Trabzon, Spor Toto — sides Mihaliccikspor had never had reason to meet before 2022 and now has to prove itself against every season.