Suwen Süper Ligi preview: Can anyone stop champions Fenerbahçe? | OneFootball

There is a particular danger in winning too convincingly. Win by a point and few people question the champions’ rebuild. Win as Fenerbahçe did last season — 27 victories from 30 matches, a goal difference of +127 and only nine goals conceded — and every addition is measured against a standard that may be difficult to reproduce.

That is the position Türkiye’s champions occupy as the new Suwen Süper Ligi season begins this weekend.

The numbers are worth pausing over. Nine goals conceded across 30 matches — home and away against every side in the division — would be an exceptional defensive record in almost any European league.

Yet, it comes within a competition that remains unusually volatile at the top. Galatasaray, ABB FOMGET and Fenerbahçe have won the past three titles. A sequence that suggests the hierarchy is not yet settled, however emphatic Fenerbahçe’s last campaign appeared.

Fenerbahçe strengthen their ranks

Fenerbahçe have not stood still. Paraguayan goalkeeper Soledad Belotto Ale has arrived from Alhama in Spain’s Liga F, while Hungarian forward Zsanett Kaján joins from Parma. The champions have also added Türkiye international right-back Fatma Şakar from Union Berlin, New Zealand international Katie Bowen from Inter, and Cameroonian forward Marie Divine Ngah Manga from Galatasaray.

It is an assertive refresh rather than a wholesale rebuild. Andrea Stašková and Yağmur Uraz provide continuity in attack, while the new arrivals add experience, depth and a broader international profile across the side.

The question is whether Fenerbahçe can strengthen a dominant team without upsetting the balance that made it so difficult to score against. Champions do not always become weaker by recruiting aggressively, but they do sometimes lose the clarity and cohesion that turned a good side into an overwhelming one.

The rules give Fenerbahçe and their rivals substantial scope to pursue that kind of refresh. Süper Ligi teams may register up to 13 foreign players, with up to eight permitted simultaneously in the active playing squad. That is not a newly expanded limit, but it gives the leading clubs significant scope to recruit internationally.

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Trabzonspor’s case for the Süper Ligi title

If anyone is equipped to punish even a minor Fenerbahçe regression, it is Trabzonspor.

They finished second last season on 76 points, scoring 106 goals and conceding only 12. Fenerbahçe’s 83 points still left a clear gap, but Trabzonspor were the division’s closest challengers by almost every meaningful measure.

The challenge now is replacing Natalia Oleszkiewicz, who finished as the league’s leading scorer with 30 goals before moving to France. Her departure removes one of Trabzonspor’s biggest individual advantages and could make closing the gap to Fenerbahçe considerably harder.

Their opening trip to Galatasaray offers an immediate test. Victory would show that Trabzonspor remain capable of building on last season’s second-place finish, despite losing their leading scorer.

Crowded at the top of the table

Galatasaray scored 104 goals last season and still finished nine points behind Fenerbahçe. That suggests only a relatively small improvement may be needed to close the gap, but it also illustrates the league’s changing standard. Prolific scoring alone is no longer enough to separate the best sides.

ABB FOMGET, champions in 2024/25, begin their campaign away to Fenerbahçe. It is the kind of opening weekend fixture that can quickly change perceptions. A positive result would re-establish FOMGET as serious contenders, while a heavy defeat would underline how quickly even a title-winning side can be overtaken in a league with increasing competitive and financial ambition.

Round one gives the season a particularly neat structure, with both of the following fixtures taking place on the opening weekend of the 2026-27 campaign:

Beyond the favourites

The title race should not obscure the rest of the division.

Beşiktaş scored heavily last season but finished outside the leading group, while Yüksekova’s fifth-place finish showed that the league has more competitive depth than its biggest Istanbul and Ankara names suggest. The middle of the table may be as important as the summit — clubs that once appeared peripheral are increasingly capable of taking points from established sides.

At the other end, Bakırköy, Kayseri and Haymana arrive from the First League. Kayseri won 13 of their 14 regular season matches before promotion, while Haymana claimed the final Süper Ligi place with a 4-2 play-off victory over Gaziantep Safir.

Promotion brings momentum, but survival will be the immediate objective. The gap between a successful second tier season and a viable top-flight campaign can be substantial, particularly when established sides are drawing on deeper international recruitment networks.

A league still taking shape

The most interesting feature of the new season may be its tension between dominance and instability.

Fenerbahçe begin with almost everything a defending champion could want: a formidable recent record, proven attacking quality, defensive excellence and a squad strengthened by recruits from Paraguay, Hungary, Germany, Italy and Cameroon.

But they are defending more than a title. They are defending a level of dominance that may prove more difficult to repeat than the championship itself.

Three different champions in three seasons suggest that Suwen Süper Ligi has not yet settled into a permanent order. Fenerbahçe’s task is to establish one. Trabzonspor, Galatasaray and FOMGET begin the campaign trying to ensure that last season’s table remains an exception rather than the beginning of a new hierarchy.

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