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welcome to turkey
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the place where asia meets
europe
the place where football is like a
religion
we just love the football and we love
the colors this is all about emotions in
turkey they relive life through football
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more than 80 million people
turkey's population is among the
youngest in europe
the country has big clubs and an amazing
talent pool yet on the big stage they
haven't been successful lately
why we offer our time to albin every
board members thinks that he's
florentino perez and the they are
managing real madrid
we are in istanbul to dive into turkey's
vibrant football culture
to meet past heroes
and the new generation
to learn more about politics and
patriotism
there's one question i can't get out of
my head why is turkey not a football
powerhouse
how many hours we have
what holds them back when can they
finally catch up
let's go find out shall we
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ankara might be turkey's capital but
when it comes to football istanbul is
the place to be
the clubs from istanbul have dominated
turkish football for decades
so this is as big as it gets in turkish
football it's fenerbahce against
galatasaray the two biggest clubs in the
country
watch this
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wherever you go you can find the goto of
this is something cultural and it comes
from
your father your
uncle your grandfather people feel
powerful through
the power of their teams
hence the big teams have
a large number of fans
let's take a closer look
on the asian side of istanbul you have
fenerbahce
their fiercest rival galatasaray on the
european side
at bishiktosh also european and you have
the most famous turkish clubs all in one
city the big three from istanbul
they have the largest fan base in the
country
but what's it like when the national
team is in action
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is it different support for the club and
for the national team of course national
team always comes first although i would
die for my team
but it's national it's your nation i
said before we are quite like emotional
people nation comes first everybody
god's life
we are all with one heart and we support
our team
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if you look
more closely
as a journalist
they don't get enough support
in normal games on the cover they
support fiercely but uh as a national
team doesn't get the same support uh uh
gets
galatasaray
yeah only when they're really good at
tournaments right yeah
then there's high hype going on then
when they become comebacking euro 2008
the whole nation go crazy for them
the comeback kings turkey have played at
two tournaments where they showed what
they can do
at euro 2008 they made it to the
semi-final in dramatic fashion losing to
germany in the final four a few years
earlier at the 2002 world cup another
semi-final defeat and a third place
finish but the hype is over turkey
haven't qualified for a world cup since
then and only for one european
championship
in 2016 they crashed out in the group
stages
we're now on our way to the turkish
football federation and we want to meet
one of the turkish football legends it's
hamid altentop remember him he played
for bayern for real madrid for
galatasaray and now he's working at the
turkish football federation so let's go
in
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is now in charge of the youth team set
up in turkish football the right man in
the right place
building from training
in
the german mentality he learned it from
a young age hamid was born in germany
like many other famous turkish players
recruiting talents with turkish roots
that were born and raised in other
european countries
it was the federation's strategy for
years
the sun villaired
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well you can't only rely on talents from
abroad you also need to develop players
yourself
how are turkish clubs going about that
are they doing enough
that's what we are here to find out at
vegeta one of the big three in istanbul
we have
around 120 football schools all around
in turkey
from
the ages from 9 to 14 and with a
population of 11 000 kids
having training within vegeta football
schools
and i'm the director of this old program
okay so you have to know all kids oh i'm
not all not almost but i should know the
best ones yes for sure from there from
the football schools
thanks to our football school coaches
they advise us the best players and we
invite them for trial
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i talked to hamid allentop this morning
how do you make the most out of your
talents well to educate the kids you
have to have the best coaches
first we have to have the best coaches
educated coaches then they need to teach
to the players
but even with the best coaches only a
select few make it into the first team
and into the super league it's
especially hard for turkish talents to
break through
in fact the super league has the highest
average player age in europe's top
leagues
almost 29
higher than la liga the premier league
and the bundesliga
they all want to success in short terms
no one is looking for the young guys if
toy if they don't have to
if you look at the outranks you will
find much better players but
they always think uh you have they have
to win this title this year the
management of the clubs must believe in
these kids the teams needs to give them
the chance to play in the first eleven
when i went to fenerbahce youth system
you can see the penalty stadium and i
said wow it's great now
you can't see your
stadium that's why i want to play you
can't dream from here and 15 years old
turned me like said
really
i'm not dreaming because i know they are
not going to let me play there
it's a recurring pattern talented
players like meridimira
shala suyunshi
his una and also genghis under all of
them left the country at a young age to
make a name for themselves abroad
none of them played for the big three in
this super league
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is probably the most exciting player in
the turkish national team he plays for
roma in italy and he is a star on social
media
creative teams
when he was 20 after just one season at
bashar india left the super league for
italy sometimes it's better for your
career to get away from all the hype the
pressure and the media
because the turkish sports media is
terrible yeah they'll exaggerate your
success and they'll they'll hit you and
they'll they'll criticize you
harshly if you're unsuccessful
and and that matters when you're 16 17
years old
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the media and the fans
okay like for example when fenerbahce
plays talented young kids if they make a
couple mistakes they get booed by their
own fans and this has nothing to do with
different clubs this has to do with
turkish culture what is it in their
culture it's like too much
passion too much passion
sometimes burns itself you know
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too much passion too much pressure and
then there is politics
president recep tayyip erdogan is a
polarizing figure on the world stage but
he's not just about politics erdogan is
a football fan himself he even played
sammy professionally when he was younger
erdogan loves the national team and his
footballing heroes
unless they are against him
like hakan shukir
a legend in turkey and the national
team's record goalscorer
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in 2016 sugar was charged with insulting
president erdogan on twitter
the president accuses sugar of being
part of the gulen movement seen as a
terrorist group in turkey
erdogan claims the gulen movement was
behind the failed military coup in 2016.
shukur left the country and is now in
hiding in the united states
once a national hero now an enemy of the
state
they don't even say his name on
television anymore
football is politicized in turkey and
many players openly support erdogan
during the euro 2020 qualifiers turkish
players gave a military salute
uefa does not allow political gestures
and criticize the players the turkish
federation was ordered to pay 50 000
euros also because of the political
context
the salute was made during turkey's
military offensive in northern syria in
october 2019
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every turk is is born as a soldier you
know this is this is the culture here
everyone thinks that and criticize them
they are like
they are going pro-military i don't uh
like them everyone can say in europe or
in turkey
and people have opinions but
when it comes to punishing it's it's not
a punishable act item
doesn't
young
but not everyone is on the same page
when german-born khan ions got the late
equalizer against france he refused to
give the military salute
much to the anger of some teammates
there were like tensions going on in a
team or something like that yes i
noticed that but
this is something he
should
stay
behind inside the team i really get
khan's
perspective he's playing in germany and
most of the people won't get the gesture
so
he prefer to respect their the other
perspective and not doing that
i wonder how the team will get on at the
euros especially with german-born
players like khan aihan
some say patriotism and passion can lead
you all the way
others say you have to keep a cool head
it's probably a bit of both
politics aside this turkish team are
exciting to watch
a golden generation in the making could
they surprise us all again
we are going to be the champions you
know
we believe in our team
and we will be there to support our team
there's a bunch of really really
talented young players that like i can't
wait for just for them to show what they
can do in this such big platform club
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so we spent a couple of days here in
istanbul and we had a great insight into
turkish football turkey is not a
football powerhouse yet
there are many problems but the
potential is there the hope for a new
successful generation we'll be watching
closely
turkey
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