- Cimbom
Cimbom, or Cim Bom (pronounced "JIM-bom") is the nickname of the Turkish football team
Galatasaray SK .Origin
Nobody exactly knows the origin of this word. But there are some
urban legends :* In the past, there was an American (or English) boxer, whose name was Jim (Turkish Cem) and who played for Galatasaray sports club. After a game against Fenerbahce, where Galatasaray won 2:0 and Cem scored twice, journalists asked him: "Cem, how was it like?", and Cem answered: "You know... It was like... Cem... BOM... BOM!" Since that popular media event, Galatasaray fans started to call their club Cim Bom Bom or sometimes just Cim Bom.
* A Galatasaray player moved to
Switzerland for a few years and later came back, bringing with him what Swiss fans chanted: something like "Cimbom, Cimbom". In time Galatasaray started using it.* In front of the Galatasaray High School, French girls were selling sweets. They couldn't speak Turkish very well, so they were mixing Turkish and French. When talking about sweets, they might have prefer a word inspired by French: "jelibom". The word would have been modified and became Cimbom. (Though Turkish later adopted jelibom, as "jelibon"). Or alternately, the girls were saying "j'aime bonbon" or "I like candy".
* On an early school trip of the Galatasaray High School to
Switzerland , the students learned a Swiss football chant with the lyrics "Jim, Bom, Bom" and took it back with them toIstanbul . The song stayed with the team to this day and earned them their famous nickname, Cim Bom.* Old Turkish alphabet (ottoman language) contains 2 letters equivalent with 2 letters in present Turkish alphabet. they were gim (g for present) and se (s for present). If you check carefully the old symbol of galatasaray team then you'll see old letters.
* Cim Bom Bom could be an
onomatopoeia for the sound made by the the large brass drums traditionally used in Ottoman Military Music and which are played loudly at all Galatasary games.There may be more legends, and still nobody exactly knows the story of "Cimbom".
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