By Vince Rugari
Nearly four decades of heartache have been soothed in stunning style for fans of Turkish club Trabzonspor, who turned their title celebrations into a city-wide rave party in scenes that have to be seen to be believed.
Trabzonspor clinched their first Super Lig championship in 38 years with a 2-2 draw against Antalyaspor at the weekend, sparking jubilant scenes on the country’s north-east coast.
It all began inside the stadium - and a little prematurely, as fans invaded the pitch before the full-time whistle was blown. They were eventually cleared out but once the match was officially over, they did it again, swarming their heroes - among them ex-Napoli star Marek Hamsik - all over again.
But it was just a preview of what was to come later in the Black Sea city, which reportedly ran out of flares that night as supporters took to the streets in inconceivable numbers.
Thousands of them gathered to sing songs, wave flags and shine the torches on their mobile phones to create the sort of imagery world sport has sorely missed over the course of the pandemic. In a city of roughly 300,000 people, it seemed as if almost every single one of them - and more - joined the festivities.
Some fans even risked their lives to climb to the top of lamp posts to find the appropriate angle to capture the true scale of the celebrations in all their glory.
Trabzonspor, who had former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge on their books before his ill-fated move to A-League side Perth Glory, are generally not viewed among Turkey’s most famous clubs but the recent struggles of traditional powers Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas opened the door for them to claim their seventh title. Only five other teams have ever won Turkey’s top-division championship.
“This is my first championship in my football career. I never expected to have it here, but we did,” Hamsik said.
“Giving this happiness to masses of people is such a great feeling.”
Watch football’s biggest superstars in the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League on Stan Sport. Coverage continues for the Semi-Finals this week with Real Madrid v Manchester City (Thursday 4:35am AEST) and Frankfurt v West Ham (Friday 4:35am AEST) – all matches streaming ad-free, live and on demand only on Stan Sport.