Çayırbağ Gazi Secondary School Physical Education Teacher Murat İnce started working to establish a girls’ futsal (indoor football) team 4 years ago when he saw the interest of the girls in football in the recess and physical education classes. After getting the approval of the school administration and the families convinced by the visits, İnce formed a girls’ futsal team consisting of 12 secondary school students. Despite losing on penalties in the final in the first tournament it participated in, the team became the second in the province in the tournament held in Afyonkarahisar between schools.
Everyone, especially the parents, was surprised by their success
Ince, seeing the success of the team in the first year they participated in the tournament, said that the female students at the school started playing football. While the team was being formed, “Hodja, a girl doesn’t play football.” Pointing out that the parents who opposed their daughters’ success, İnce said:
“Before the parents did not have any expectations from the team and their daughters, even when we won the provincial championship in Afyonkarahisar, some of our parents did not believe us. . He told us, ‘Teacher, 1-2 teams entered the tournament, it was just a match.’ they said. When our parents and townspeople heard that we beat the champion teams of the big schools in Afyonkarahisar and other provinces in the region, they did not believe it, even it was very funny to our parents, but later on, they were happy when their children succeeded, and their perspectives on the school and our futsal team changed.”
Boateng, Ronaldo and Muslera lead the team to the championship
The team captain, 8th grade student Medine Eren, nicknamed “Boateng” by his friends because of his effective play in defense, also said , “You will break your arm and leg” before his family will play football. He said that he did not allow, and then he started futsal with his teacher meeting with his family.
Stating that he is very confident in defense, Eren said, “It is very difficult to score goals against us in the matches in the tournament. My friends also call me ‘Boateng’ because I play very well in defense and shoot well. I’m not passing the ball.” said. Şerife Keskin, nicknamed “Ronaldo”, who pulled the team’s goal load in tournaments, also noted that she had no interest in football in primary school, and that she found it ridiculous because boys played .
Stating that his physical education teacher made him love football, Keskin said, “I have goals regarding football now. I am very interested. Since I am the striker of the team, I have scored 11 goals so far in this year’s matches. I have a goal in every match. Our goal is to make Afyonkarahisar the champion of Turkey.”
Called “Muslera” because she conceded few goals in her matches, Elif Öztürk, on the other hand, stated that she saw 3 goals in only 8 matches in her castle in tournaments, and that she will continue to play effectively in the semi-finals and the Turkish Championship. .
