Teammates become housemates for women’s team in Antalya

ANTALYA – Anadolu Agency

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A total of eight players from 1207 Antalya Muratpaşa Belediyespor, a Turkish women’s first league football team in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, are sharing the same house as they sweat over their team’s success on the green pitch.

The club’s new season transfers, Filiz Koç, Yaşam Göksu, Efsane Nur Düzparmak, Semanur Akbaş, Serra Çağan, Sude Topçu, Jacquette Ada and Adama Smith Dickens, all live together in a five-bedroom apartment in Antalya, sharing housework including dishes, cleaning and cooking. 

“The environment is very nice here; we both cry and laugh together which is also the case during the games. We win together and lose together,” said Koç, a 28-year-old Turkish national team player who was transferred from German second league team Hannover Limner. 

Koç said she normally did not like crowded environments, but she saw her teammates as her family members.

“We do not have any problems here because we all want the same thing, being champions. This is how we should be a team as it is very important on the pitch,” said Koç.


Another player of the team, Göksu, 20, said she started playing football with boys in her neighborhood when she was young and later became the only girl on her school’s boys’ team. 

Transferred from İzmir’s Konak Belediyespor, Göksu said she had no aim when she started to play on a women’s team, but as she started to earn money from it, she got involved in football professionally.

“I came here [to Antalya] and I play here this year. I want to continue soccer in the best way, professionally. I already knew most of my friends at home. We are like a family here... When someone says something, no one says no or opposes it. On the contrary, we handle things together,” said Göksu.

Dickens, 24, said when she first came to Turkey she had a tough time but is now getting used to living here.
 
Transferred from Trabzon İdmanocağı, Dickens is a Congo national team player.

“If I stay here until the end of the year, everything can be better for the next year because I will get used to everything. In Congo, not everything is professional like this. Therefore I want to live here, like this. Living there is very difficult. I am very happy here,” said Dickens.