Selamun Aleykum Karagümrük Geldi: How Karagumruk Secured and Extruded Andrea Pirlo

It all seemed to good to be true for Fatih Karagumruk. With an already strong Italian contingent at the club with the veteran, Emiliano Viviano, as goalkeeper and Andrea Bertolacci and Fabio Borini both making the move to Kara Kirmizi in recent memory, it seemed an Italian manager would make the move to the club due to the links the club had. Vincenzo Montella – who has since excelled with Adana Demirspor – was linked, but it was Andrea Pirlo who made the shock move to a Turkish side still relatively new to Super Lig after a 36-year absence. 

The history of Karagumruk is as long and steeped in history. It doesn’t even take very long to find examples that illustrate this; the reason that Karagumruk have been going sans-stadium for the last three seasons since their promotion to the Super Lig is that their actual stadium, the ‘Vefa Stadi’ (familiarly referred to as the ‘Karagumruk Stadi’ by fans of the club), is built on an ancient cistern from the Byzantine period of Turkish history. 

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Due to the existence of this ancient cistern, named as the ‘Aetius Cistern’, the walls of the stadium have been protected fervently by both the Turkish government and the Turkish football federation (TFF) particularly since the club was promoted back to the top flight in 2020.