Within the scope of the Football Academy project, besides Belgian and Dutch clubs and federations, Trabzonspor, Giresunspor, 1461 Trabzon, Altınordu, Galatasaray, Antalyaspor, Başakşehir FK, Beşiktaş, Alanyaspor MKE Ankaragücü, Gençlerbirliği, Ankara Keçiörengücü, Ankara Demirspor, Ankaraspor, Etimesgut Belediyespor, Gaziantep After examining the clubs of FK, Çorum FK, Yılport Samsunspor, Adana Demirspor, Yeni Mersin İdmanyurdu, Karaköprü Belediye Spor, Şanlıurfaspor, Sivasspor, Sivas Belediye Spor and Kayserispor, Büyükekşi visited Kasımpaşa today after Istanbulspor and received information about the infrastructure works.
During the visit hosted by Kasımpaşa President Mehmet Fatih Saraç, Deputy Chairman İbrahim Yıldız, Club Board Member Orhan Yüksel and Club CEO Serkan Reçber, President Mehmet Büyükekşi was presented to TFF Deputy Chairman, Executive Board Member, Board Member for Administrative Affairs. Yalçın Orhan, TFF Super League Executive Board Member Müslüm Özmen and National Team Member of the Board of Directors Hamit Altıntop accompanied him.
TFF President Büyükekşi visited Turgay Ciner Facilities of the dark blue and white club in Kemerburgaz and received information about the infrastructure works from the President Mehmet Fatih Saraç and Club CEO Serkan Reçber. Kasımpaşa Club President Mehmet Fatih Saraç gave Mehmet Büyükekşi a Kasımpaşa jersey with his name on the back.
TFF PRESIDENT MEHMET BÜYÜKEKŞİ: OF THE CLUBS WE VISITED, KASIMPAŞA WAS THE MOST IMPRESSED FACILITY.
TFF President Mehmet Büyükekşi, in his statement during his visit to Kasımpaşa Club, reminded that they also visited academies in the Netherlands and Belgium outside of Turkey, “We visited the clubs of Ajax, AZ Alkmaar, KVC Westerlo, KRC Genk. We visit our clubs in Turkey. In the Netherlands. What we saw in Belgium impressed us a lot, but among the clubs we visited, Kasımpaşa was the facility that we were most impressed with. It is truly excellent. With the agreement we made with Double Pass, after all the trainings are completed, Double Pass will prepare a curriculum and this curriculum will be distributed to all academies. Then these academies will have the lowest minimum. We will introduce a star rating system as middle and highest level. Today, I saw that Kasımpaşa’s facilities deserve 3 stars right away. Well done to those who made it. Everything is beyond perfect. I always say ‘the enemy of the good is perfect’. This place is already. He deserved perfection.”
“IN THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE FUTURE OF TURKISH FOOTBALL, WE MUST CONSIDER THIS”
Mentioning the importance of the Infrastructure Academies project, Mehmet Büyükekşi said, “We have been saying this since the first day: Academies are the most important project that will save the future of Turkish football. We definitely need to return to our own resources. We have the youngest population in Europe. There are definitely gems in this young population. “We need to find and extract. We need to do a skill test and then train them. We see examples of these. There is a very important Turkish player in both teams that will compete in the Champions League final to be played in Istanbul. One of them is the captain of our A National Team, who plays in Inter,” We have Hakan Çalhanoğlu, our pride, and İlkay Gündoğan from Manchester City. Both football players are from Germany. When we look again, we have values like Cengiz Ünder and Çağlar Soyuncu, who were trained in Altınordu in our Turkish National Team. Like Arda Güler from Fenerbahçe. we have a young talent, we have stars like Enes and Merih who grew up in Turkey and continue their football lives abroad. We have players such as Rıdvan, who grew up from Beşiktaş, Uğurcan, who grew up from Trabzonspor, Abdülkadir, and Kerem, who grew up from Galatasaray. We need to increase the number of these players. On the one hand, facilities are needed, but on the other hand, it is necessary to increase the quality of education and bring it to a certain standard. We need to spread the same system all over Turkey. This is our main goal as the Turkish Football Federation. We want to establish the Turkish Infrastructure Model, which is similar to the systems in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. That’s why we visit these academies. It’s very useful too. We visit both the A teams and the facilities and academies of the clubs. Our future is here, we have to take that into account,” he said.
“I RECOMMEND OUR ACADEMY FOOTBALL PLAYERS TO LEARN VERY GOOD ENGLISH. JUST BEING A FOOTBALLER ALONE DOESN’T MEAN A LOT”
Emphasizing that he advised the academy players he met during club visits not to neglect their education, TFF President Büyükekşi said, “I advise them to learn English very well. Knowing good English will be a very important plus for them, not only when they are at the academy, but also when they become professionals. It is very important to be a good person. It is very important to be a moral person. Atatürk said, “I like the smart, agile and moral athlete of the athlete. That’s why we need to train our children in all fields. Being a football player alone doesn’t mean much. If they go abroad in the future, they will love Turkey.” “They need to represent them properly and network and communication are very important in football. To achieve this, they will need to know a good foreign language,” he said.
Kasımpaşa Club President Mehmet Fatih Saraç stated that they attach great importance to infrastructure as a club, and stated that they are very pleased with the visit of TFF President Mehmet Büyükekşi and the members of the board of directors.