"Galatasaray provide a different motivation for me," says Turkish sports photographer Mine Kasapoğlu. So, when the football club called Mine to document the team’s training camp in Austria, there was only ever going to be one answer.

Galatasaray has been Mine’s team since birth, "I remember sleeping in red and yellow bedsheets and wearing team jerseys that my aunt had made". But the love for the Istanbul club is in Mine’s family history, "My Grandfather was close with the founder of the club and was also one of the first captains of the rowing team. It is where he met my grandmother, who was captain of the women's team. And my mother was a swimmer for Galatasaray, breaking Turkish records, and of course, my father has been a member for a long time." Mine proudly recalls.

Mine has been photographing Galatasaray with her Sony Alpha cameras and lenses for the past three years, working both with the club and occasionally covering its matches as a sports photojournalist. "I have been photographing professional sports all over the world for years, but I had never photographed my club, so when I had the chance, it was just amazing. Now it is almost a personal project. I send a lot of the images to athletes, who love them and share them."

With such a deep-rooted love for the club, Mine’s images can often look different from the images that we sometimes typically see of footballers. "They are not media or press shots - for example, I make sure that I don’t take any photos of the other team, I don’t even want them in the picture, which is not how I would generally work. I am just there for one thing - to make them look like superheroes. Just as I do with swimming and the other sports I am known for photographing, I want to showcase the good, the superhero side of these guys, rather than their defeats. I'm always there for the positive kind of feelings."

Mine shoots with the Sony Alpha 1 and Alpha 9 II cameras. "I love my Alpha 1, " she declares, "I love how big the file sizes are. I can shoot 50 megapixels at 30fps. It’s incredible to have that much data and that much quality, so I can crop images as I want and still retain lots of detail."

A lot of Mine’s images of Galatasaray and football in general are captured at 50 megapixels at 30 frames per second, taken with the FE 400mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens. "I find the 400mm focal length better than the 600mm or 300mm for shooting football, it just works framing-wise. And nothing beats the quality of the 400mm," she says, "My perfect set-up for football is the Alpha 1 with the 400mm and the Alpha 9 II with the FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS for when the players are closer."

To create super heroic images, Mine has her own set of rules. "I don’t really follow the game. Subjectively, you need the ball in the photo to make it a ‘good’ photo, but I also look at the body language. I love photographing the players as they line-up at the start - it looks like they are about to attack, all together, as a team. I’ll try to see those moments in their faces and shoot at f/2.8 while blurring the background. When Galatasaray are playing at home, there is a moment in the second half of matches where the crowd all hold up their phone lights, it makes a great background."

Capturing images is more than just taking photos of footballers; it is about a moment in time and the enticing possibility of history being made. “Sometimes I feel magic happening, and that draws me. That's sort of what's happening with Galatasaray, and it's continuing. If the team go on a magic run in this Champions League and gets to the quarter-finals, semi-finals… or who knows? I want to be there to get that magic.”

The long season will have many stories to be told. It started this summer when Mine was able to photograph the Turkish club in her adopted home of Austria, as the team travelled for their preseason training and friendly matches. Pre-season is a time of excitement for the coming season, and this year, there is a buzz around two players in particular. “Our club is going through a magical period where we’re getting these players who are making everybody in Turkey fall in love with football again, like Mauro Icardi and Victor Osimhen. The guys are just reigniting this love for football and for kids all around Turkey,” Mine excitedly explains.

“It just means so much to me; it gives me so much satisfaction when these athletes love these pictures and share them. I want to document this time and give back to the club that I grew up with.”