Ziya Songülen

Ziya Songülen — Biography

Nurizade Ziya Songülen (9 September 1886, Istanbul – 21 August 1936, Istanbul) graduated from the French Saint-Joseph school in 1903 and, having discovered football while studying in England, returned home determined to bring the game to his country. Together with Şevkipaşazade Ayetullah and Necip Okaner he set up what would become Fenerbahçe SK, a project that began taking shape in 1906 but could only be completed in the spring of 1907 given the restrictions of Sultan Abdülhamid II's reign. He served as the club's first president and its member No. 1, while also turning out for the side as a defender.

It was Songülen who arranged for the club's first jerseys to be shipped from England; when the heavy winter-weight kit proved impractical in warmer weather, he replaced it in 1908 with navy-and-yellow striped shirts sourced in Istanbul, fixing the colors Fenerbahçe still wears today. That same year he commissioned a march for the club, the first ever written for a Turkish football team, and he purchased the plot known as Papazın Çayırı — later the site of Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium — for 17 Ottoman gold coins.

Descended from a family with ties to the Ottoman dynasty, Songülen died in Istanbul on 21 August 1936.