Nurcan Çelik

Nurcan Çelik (born 1 January 1980) is a Turkish women's footballer who plays as a goalkeeper in the Turkish Women's Second Football League for Akdeniz Nurçelik Spor, of which she is the founder and president. She played for the Turkey women's under-19 national team before she became a member of the Turkey women's team.[1]

Nurcan Çelik
Personal information
Date of birth (1980-01-01) 1 January 1980
Place of birth Artvin, Turkey
Playing position(s) Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team
 Akdeniz Nurçelik
Number 88
Youth career
1995–1997 Bursaspor
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1997–1999 Bursaspor
1999 Gemlik Zeytinspor
2001–2002 Zeytinburnuspor
2003 Maltepe Yalıspor
2003–2004 VfL Wolfsburg 0 (0)
2006–2007 Dostluk Spor
2007–2009 Zeytinburnuspor 27 (1)
2010 Akdeniz Spor Birliği 2 (0)
2011– Akdeniz Nurçelik Spor 49 (3)
National team‡
1997–1998 Turkey U19 3 (0)
1999–2008 Turkey 6 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 1 March 2020
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 2 July 2008

Personal life

Early life

Nurcan Çelik was born in a low-income family as the youngest of three children, a son and two daughters, in Artvin, northeastern Turkey on 1 January 1980.[1][2] Her mother died from breast cancer when Nurcan was four years old. Her father remarried, and the family moved a couple of years later from Artvin to Bursa. Her father died when she was 16 years old. Her elder sister was killed by a gunman. In 2013, her stepmother died also from breast cancer.[2]

Health issues

In 2008, Çelik contracted thyroid cancer.[3] After surgery and radiation treatment, she underwent eight months of chemotherapy in her family house in a village in Bursa.[2][4][5] In 2010, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and invaded lymph nodes.[3] As a result, one of her breasts was removed, and she underwent chemotherapy for eight months in a hospital in Bursa.[2]

Sports career

Çelik became interested in football as a young girl. She idolized the Polish striker Roman Kosecki, who played for Galatasaray S.K. in Turkey between 1990 and 1992.[2][4]

Club

She learned from a cousin that women's football was being established in Turkey. At that time, she was able to juggle the ball 500-600 times. She entered the selections, and her football career started as a player in Bursaspor in 1995, where she played two seasons in the youth setup.[5] She was a member of Bursaspor until 1999. Her coach wanted her in the goalkeeper position against her will. Even her father was against it. She unwillingly accepted the goalkeeper position. He was shocked when saw his daughter as goalkeeper during a match visit.[2]

She transferred to Gemlik Zeytinspor in Gemlik, Bursa Province. In the second half of the 2000–01 season and joined the Istanbul-based club Zeytinburnuspor. She moved to Maltepe Yalıspor at the beginning of the second half of the 2003–04 season.[1]

In 2003, as the Turkish Football Federation suspended the women's football leagues, players found no chance to continue competition football. Women with an educated profession found employment. Çelik applied to the German club VfL Wolfsburg upon their advertisement on the internet. She signed a six-month contract with the club and obtained a residence permit for six months. The first half season,[2] she took part in training only. After that period, she had to return to Turkey because her residence permit was not extended.[6]

Returning home, she signed for Dostluk Spor, where she stayed for one season. She then returned to her former club Zeytinburnuspor in the 2007–08 season, where she played three seasons until 2010.[1][7]

In June 2010, she moved to Northern Cyprus, and obtained a license.[2][8] She played in two matches for Akdeniz Spor Birliği in the KTFF Women's League. However, she had to return home after the final match in July 2010 due to cancellation of her license, which was issued out of the transfer period by way of an exception.[9]

In the 2011–12 season, she played one match for İstanbul Nurçelik Spor. Following a break of one year, she again played for her club, which was renamed Akdeniz Nurçelik Spor in the 2013–14 season. Aside from playing as a goalkeeper,[2] she occasionally plays in the midfielder position.[1]

International

Çelik was admitted to the Turkey women's national U-19 team, and debuted in the 1998 UEFA Women's Under-18 Championship qualifying round match against Russia on 17 November 1997. Later, she played in two matches of the 1999 UEFA Women's Under-18 Championship qualifying round against Ukraine and Norway in September 1998.[1]

She was nominated to play for the Turkey women's national football team in February 1999.[10] After playing for the first time for the national team in a friendly match against Israel on 3 July 1999, she took part in two matches of the UEFA Women's Euro 2001 qualification round the same year. In 2007 and 2008,[11] Çelik played three matches in the UEFA International Support Tournament.[1]

Club founder and president
Akdeniz Nurçelik Spor (black/red) vs Osmaniye Spor (green/yellow) in the 2018-19 Turkish Women's Second Football League match. Nurcan Çelik (left in lilac/black/red) shooting a photograph of her team.

In 2010, she founded her own football club İstanbul Nurçelik Spor in Turkey giving her name to the club.[3] She took over the players of her former club Zeytinburnuspor, which had recently folded. She established a women-only club, and did not open a men's branch for fear that one day a club president may decide to close the women's branch.[2] She intended to bring women footballers from Northern Cyprus to Turkey. However, this became impossible as an international embargo was imposed on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Therefore, the two clubs, İstanbul Nurçelik Spor and Akdeniz Spor Birliği, were merged into Akdeniz Nurçelik Spor in the 2013-14 season.[12] Çelik acts as the president of her club.[4][5]

Career statistics
As of match played 1 March 2020.[1]
Club Season League Continental National Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Bursaspor 1995-1999 --303
Total ––303
Gemlik Zeytinspor
Zeytinburnuspor
Maltepe Yalıspor
VfL Wolfsburg
Dostluk Spor		 1999-2006 --30
Total ––3030
Zeytinburnuspor 2007-08First League 90--20110
2008-09First League 110--10120
2009-10Second League 71--0071
Total 271––30301
Akdeniz Spor Birliği 2009-10KTFF Women's League 20--0020
Total 20––0020
İstanbul Nurçelik Spor 2011-12Second League 10--0010
Akdeniz Nurçelik Spor 2013-14Second League 10--0010
2014-15Third League 83--0083
2017-18Second League 120--00120
2018-19Second League 170--00170
2019-20Second League 100--00100
Total 493––00493
Career total 78490874

References
  1. "Oyuncular Futbular: NurcanÇelik" (in Turkish). Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  2. Köse, Hilal (7 December 2018). "Hep imkansıza oynadım". Cumhuriyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  3. "Kanseri 90'dan çıkaran kadın". FourFourTwo (in Turkish). 8 March 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  4. Şengün, Ümit (22 January 2014). "Röportaj: Nurcan Çelik". Transfer Merkezi (in Turkish). Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  5. Kordu, İskender (24 June 2015). "K.Çekmece Çiçek Açtı". İstanbul Amatör (in Turkish). Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  6. Eser, Ali (15 June 2004). "İnternet üzerinden 'tesadüfi' transfer". Sabah (in Turkish). Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  7. Juchem, Markus (20 November 2007). "Türkei will sich im Frauenfußball etablieren". WomenSoccer (in German). Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  8. "Nurcan Çelik" (in Turkish). Kıbrıs Türk Futbol Federasyonu. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  9. "MAGEM federasyona 'çelenk' verdi". Star Kıbrıs (in Turkish). 13 July 2010. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  10. "Bayan Futbolda kadro açıklandı". Hürriyet (in Turkish). 3 February 1999. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  11. "İşte Bayan Milliler!". Habrtürk (in Turkish). 29 May 2008. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  12. "Hangi Kulübün İsmi Nereden Geliyor?". Yerel Futbol (in Turkish). 2 August 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
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