By our turkish collaborator Sevket Ulker (Futsal Turkey)

Turkish National team coach Ömer Kaner is working hard in order to prepare the absolute debut of the local squad in European Futsal. Turkey, as known, will take part in the preliminary group in Finland (qualifying tournament for Portugal 2007 Euro champs) vs the local national team as well as Albania and Armenia (to be played between January 15th and 21st).

The first step was to organize a selection in the beginning of november (3-4-5/11/06), evaluating more than 25 university league players in Turkey (right now the only national competition in the country). Also, some well known former soccer players like Umit Davala took part in the selections. Eleven players from this stage shoud have been selected for a final stage, as far as we know.

Then, on Novemeber 15th a friendly match in Brussels was played against the first division club Brussels Utd (which managed to win by 5-2) in order to observe the belgian, dutch and german leagues players with turkish origins. The squad included: Murat Duzgun, Gokhan Yýlmaz, Kemal Eryigit, Ilhami Kodalcý, Cihan Ozcan, Yener Kýlýc, Enis Genc, Yasin Erdal, Okan Soykan, Imdat Ilguy, Fatih Halýcý, Kemal Gezer, Servet Yazgan, Metin Topal, Gokhan Karaoz, Huseyin Yýldýz, Cemil Hacýkerimoglu, Abdullah Icel and Aziz Saglam.

The final selection that should probably determine the definitive list started today in Izmir (Turkey) and will last until November 30th. Twenty-five players are attending the training stage (11 from the turkish selection + 14 from the Brussels' match)

Also, it seems that once the team will be created, Turkey could play a friendly match against the Romanian National team.










Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com