A post in English, for the world to see

So, seeing as I've seemingly gotten my first non-Norwegian reader (hi Perlomental), here's a piece I wrote for the wonderful website called Fenerbahce Worldwide (www.fenerbahceworldwide.org) a couple of months ago. It's about football and Turks, the best non-EU people imaginable. Here goes:

Being a Norwegian Fenerli has its ups and downs. The primary downside is that no one here knows the slightest thing about Fenerbahçe or Turkish football. They can go on for hours about Liverpool, Manchester United or Tottenham, but when you mention the progress of Colin Kazim-Richards or the great left foot possessed by our unsung hero Vederson, you can bet the conversation is over.

The upside, however, is that we are used to everything being insanely overpriced. I myself pay 400 euros every month just for one room in a shared apartment with three others, and if you want to go out for dinner you will have to expect at least 30 euros per person. How is this positive, you say? Well, for one thing, paying five times the market value for a ticket for the hottest derby in the world doesn’t sting too much.

Two days before the match, we went to Şükrü Saracoğlu to visit Fenerium and possibly the museum at the stadium. FBWW’s very own Mehmet Pozam had told us that he might come out to help us find tickets on the matchday, so we didn’t even think about finding any today – just a couple of jerseys, scarves and so on. However, to our grand delight, we were approached by a salesman outside the stadium, almost before we had set foot on the Asian side of İstanbul. Ten minutes after he talked to us, he entered the store with two tickets for the Migros Tribün. We handed him 600 lira for the pair (Yeah, 600!) after checking their authenticity, and happiness ensued.

Two days later, we headed out to Kadiköy again, free of ticket anxiety. We had our supporter gear, we had our tickets, what could go wrong now? Nothing, that’s what. Now to confirm that, we ignored Mehmet’s advice of never ordering anything without seeing a menu first. A plate of köfte and two beers each resulted in a bill of no less than 90 lira, so I guess something could go wrong anyway. Oh well, the match was just five hours away, so we decided we couldn’t wait any longer and got in line outside the stadium.

Here we met a gentleman from Switzerland, who was in Kadiköy for the first time. This was a strange person: He spoke relatively good English, but when we replied in the same language, he seemed to not understand it at all. He also treated us to a bag of those seeds everyone’s eating at matches here, but we couldn’t quite get a hold of the technique and thought it was too big of a hassle to open them. The Swiss guy joined us inside the stadium and stood with us during the build-up and first half, and he was quite useful as he was constantly explaining to us what the fans were chanting in Turkish. Needless to say, the visitors weren’t mentioned in a positive manner...

After a good while, the Fenerbahçe players finally came out to warm up before the match, to a deafening roar and huge applause from the stadium. And it didn’t take long for this derby to heat up: During the warm-up, players from both teams clashed on the field after Arda Turan had crashed with Cristian on his way to greet the Galatasaray fans in the corner. There and then it seemed like a natural follow-up to the meeting in Ali Sami Yen last spring, and got the crowd even more fired up for the match. So fired up that someone in the Maraton Tribün threw something hard at the referees as they tried to break up the fight, resulting in the fourth official getting hit and bleeding from his head. Yes, the raw passion of Turkish fans is definitely not a myth. Eventually the game kicked off, and it didn’t take more than a couple of minutes before ex-Aslan Emre Belözoğlu mauled Milan Baros with a tackle. The Czech forward had to go off on a stretcher, adding further heat to the atmosphere.

Fener owned the field for the first half hour or so. I honestly don’t think Galatasaray took a shot during this period. Fener didn’t create too many big opportunities themselves, but managed to get an early Lugano goal disallowed after the ball had gone over the line just before it fell to the Uruguayan. Not long after, we took the lead properly through who other than Alex De Souza – and the stadium went nuts. And it was to get even rowdier in the second half, as the same great Brazilian got a penalty that he converted into 2-0. Flares went off around the stadium, not to mention sparklers that were handed out minutes earlier. I had a handful of sparklers myself, but the darn things just wouldn’t burn. I must have looked like an idiot, desperately trying to light my sparklers with no luck. Oh well, Fener was 2-0 up against Gala, so what did I care?

Speaking of caring, there were a group of three middle-aged men standing just in front of us who didn’t wear any colours. The Swiss guy had whispered to us earlier that he suspected that they were Galatasaray fans, and at this point in the match it became evident that he was right. None of them participated in any jumping or chanting, and the guy in the middle even sat down and plucked his hair when we were awarded the penalty. He tried to make it look like his back was hurting, but he wasn’t fooling us. Coincidentally, his back seemed to get much better as the visitors scored a lucky goal to get back into the match.

At this point, Fenerbahçe seemed tired and most of us were just waiting for the equaliser to come, even after Kader Keita’s dismissal. They had a couple of chances, but Fener got back into it and hit them on the counter. Daniel Güiza had just come on and missed an incredible opportunity with a header. Was he going to become the scapegoat again? Oh no! In injury time, he treated us to a lovely flick to make it 3-1, thus ensuring another comfortable home win over the evil ones from across the straits. Confetti started raining down, flares were again lit and everyone except the guys in red in the corner could finally exhale properly. This one was in the bag! The referee could blow the final whistle and the home fans could celebrate their Sari Lacivert-wearing heroes before letting the final taunts rain down on Galatasaray’s fans and players.

Wow... This was my second visit to Kadiköy, and my first derby experience. You probably all know already that this was something completely different from the Fenerbahçe – Sivasspor match I attended in March, but it can’t be stressed enough. The excitement in the air in the city hours before, the lines to get into Saracoğlu, the noise level before the match, the intensity when the players clashed, all the pyrotechnics, whistling, chanting and celebrations – I’m telling you, there is no better way to spend 300 lira. The people back in Norway can have their trips to Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge, where they’re able to hear people coughing on the other side of the pitch. I know where I’ll rather be: Burası Kadiköy, buradan çıkış yok!

(The original piece, with a photo and all, can be seen on http://www.fenerbahceworldwide.org/view/2549/Two_Guys_From_Oslo_On_A_Mission_To_See_World%27s_Greatest_Derby/)