One of our citizens, who was taken out of the rubble in Malatya, one of our cities where the earthquake caused great destruction, was Yeni Malatyaspor net guard Ahmet Eyüp Türkaslan. While the hopeful wait of his club and sports community came to an end with the sad news from the previous day, the 28-year-old glove left behind a tearful wife and a heartbreaking story. According to Hürriyet’s news, we listened to Ahmet Eyüp, who grew up as an orphan and has no one, from his coach Ahmet Ziya Yüce, who made him become a professional in his hometown team Gaziantepspor, and from Hasan Özer, the coach he worked with in Gaziantepspor and Yeni Malatyaspor.
MARRIED WITH THE LOVE OF UNIVERSITY
The name that changed the life of Ahmet Ziya Yüce, who was born in Gaziantep’s Yavuzeli district and started playing football in Gaziantepspor’s infrastructure in 2007, is the former Adanaspor net guard Ahmet Ziya Yüce, who was the goalkeeper coach of the red and black team at that time:
“I watched Ahmet Eyüp when I was 16 years old and liked it and brought him to Gaziantepspor. His father was a truck driver, he passed away when he was little. He grew up an orphan without a father and mother. He prayed every day. He had a faithful and determined nature. He played football and studied at university. He married his university love Kübra Türkaslan. Both were teachers. He always wanted to be an educator and raise people.
HE SAID ‘IF MY MOM DAD SAW’
He said that he would like to teach in the future because he loved football. He married his wife 4 months ago. He invited all his friends to his wedding. Fortunately, Hasan Özer, who was the coach of Yeni Malatyaspor at that time, surprised and brought the whole team from Malatya to Gaziantep by bus. He was very touched and was happy by saying, “My father and mother had seen these days”. He was very hardworking. The training was over and he would push his trainers to make him work harder. His ambition to work the most would make us happy. In our conversations, he would say to us, “One day, I will protect the national team’s goal with the crescent and star jersey on my chest.” He used to analyze all the goalkeepers. In short, he was a man.
IT CAN’T STAY IN PLACE EVEN IF IT WAS IN THE hut
Ahmet Ziya Yüce described his student as follows:
“In goalkeeping, he always talked about Zydrunas Karcemarskas’ agility, Muslera’s intelligence, Mert Günok’s stance, Uğurcan’s performance, Ertaç Özbir’s courage, Abdulsamet Dumlu and Oytun Özdoğan’s youth and took lessons from all goalkeepers. He used to analyze all the goalkeepers in the field and in Turkey. When he went on the field, he could not stand still, even though he was sitting on the bench, he would run to every event.”
HE IS OUT OF THE CORRIDOR
“Even the coach Yılmaz Vural had reproached the departure of Yakup, but there is a benefit in every job. His friends had warned him, ‘2 plus 1 house is small for you, and move a small income’. He replied, ‘I and my wife are happy with it.’ Ahmet went out to the corridor during the earthquake. And he stayed in the bedroom. His wife survived, Ahmet was stuck between the columns.”