Fenerbahçe Opet’s star player Emma Meesseman said, “As you know, we won all three cups this season and the biggest goal of the season remains before us. We are completely focused on this championship. We won three cups, we were happy and celebrated, but these are behind us. We are currently focused on our most important goal.”
Emma Meesseman, who is the most valuable player of the WNBA finals, where she won the WNBA championship with the Washington Mystics in 2019, in addition to her 6 EuroLeague Women championships in her career, and has been elected to the WNBA All-Star twice, made a statement to Demirören News Agency (DHA) before the EuroLeague Women Final Six, which will start tomorrow in Zaragoza, Spain. Meesseman, who has many championships in the national leagues she played in and won the EuroLeague Women championship with Fenerbahçe in the 2022/2023 season and was selected as the regular season MVP in Europe that season; He talked about his career, achievements in the national team and future goals.
Expressing his thoughts about the organization before the EuroLeague Women Final Six, where Fenerbahçe Opet, which completed the Turkish Super League undefeated this season, will directly play in the Final Four, the star basketball player said, “First of all, they are two different organizations, but we are very happy to have won the undefeated championship in the Turkish League. As you know, we won all three cups this season and the biggest goal of the season remains before us. We are currently focused on this championship. We won the three cups, we were happy and celebrated, but these are behind us.” “We are currently focused on our most important goal. We hope that we will go there and do our best to achieve the other most important goal of the season,” he said.
”IT IS ALWAYS DIFFICULT TO PLAY IN FINAL SIX AND EXPERIENCE THAT ATMOSPHERE”
Underlining that EuroLeague Women is an organization consisting of very strong teams, the Belgian center said, “First of all, EuroLeague Women is a place where you cannot predict who is the favorite at the beginning of the season. But when you look at the last 6 teams right now, they are all teams that deserve to be there. Of course, we work against these teams, we continue our work. We think there will be very physical matches because they are all very physical teams and it is always difficult to play in the Final Six and experience that atmosphere. We need to work on the details, we need to focus on ourselves.”
”MIGUEL MENDEZ IS A REALLY GOOD COACH IN HIS FIELD”
Referring to the differences made in the team by head coach Miguel Mendez, who was appointed as the head coach of Fenerbahçe Opet at the end of last season, Emma Meesseman said, “Last season was a difficult season for us. Regardless of who he is, we could not reflect what we wanted on the field in the last part of the season. Miguel Mendez is a really good coach in his field. Since the day he arrived, what he wanted was for us to play simply, to play as a team. Of course, there are things he specifically wanted from us, but at the core of the matter, playing a simple and team game is very important to him. We also responded to what he wanted from us on the field.” “We continue to achieve our goals by reflecting and playing as a team,” he said.
”THERE ARE TOO MANY TOP LEVEL BELGIAN PLAYERS IN EUROPE”
Emma Meesseman, who was selected as the most valuable player of the Belgian National Team, which completed the EuroBasket Women 2025 as champions, evaluated the consecutive successes they achieved with the national team as follows:
“First of all, I have to say that we are still living this European championship as a dream. Because, while we, as the Belgian National Team, could not participate in any tournament 10 years ago, there is now a team in Belgium that filled the halls on April 14. There are many top-level Belgian players in Europe and we think we have created a culture. We are like a family on the field, and even though we are seen as favorites with these achievements, winning before the tournaments still feels like a dream to us. But we have created a culture in Belgium and the people are women. “I think we are drawn to basketball.”
”IT WAS VERY SPECIAL TO MEET MENDEZ TWICE”
Recalling the final match of the Belgian National Team in which they defeated Spain 67-65 in the EuroBasket Women 2025, coached by Miguel Mendez, and their previous encounters, the experienced center said, “We played twice in the final against Miguel Mendez. Although the first one was not as we wanted, we managed to win the second one. Basketball is never a game limited to 40 minutes. They have a really great culture, especially a great young team. I think Belgium will also have a great future in the coming years.” “He will have a very good infrastructure, but it was very special to meet him twice and we are happy to win the second time,” he said.
IF FENERBAHÇE OPET BECOMES CHAMPION, MEESSEMAN WILL MAKE HISTORY
Stating that she was very happy as long as she played basketball, Emma Meesseman also touched upon the historical importance of this match for her career and said, “For me, actually playing basketball is a passion in itself. Of course, the goal of the Final Six, which we will go to next week, is the most important goal for me right now. It is very important for me to bring a new European Championship cup to Fenerbahçe and, hopefully, if we win, I will go down in history as the player with the most EuroLeague championships. But I really don’t think about it too much right now, because what is important is to go there as a team and do it myself.” “I’m not very interested in the future right now, but of course it would be very important for me to be able to tell what I have achieved when I quit basketball,” he said.
”I LOVE THIS COUNTRY, I LOVE BEING HERE”
Touching on how his relations with Türkiye and Fenerbahçe Opet will continue after he quits basketball, Meesseman concluded his words with the following statements:
“I’m sure you’ll see me as a tourist. But we don’t know what will happen on the basketball side right now. As I said, I don’t know what will happen even a month later, but I love this country, I love being here. We don’t know what will happen right now.”
