Turkey’s Football League – by Sait Serkan Gurbuz

Sait Serkan Gürbüz, MU alum, photographed a Turkish football league.

It was a nice Saturday and I went to shoot the sport I love the most. I haven’t shot football since my first semester at Missouri when I was kindly granted a field pass by the Athletic department. I played football for 6 years in Turkey.

Football has been played in Turkey since 1993. For 8 years, Turkish teams did not have any equipment. It was still played as a contact sport, just like rugby but rougher. I played one and a half years like that.

In 2001, teams started acquiring helmets and pads. Most of the equipment was donated by high schools in the US and brought to Turkey by Tom Kelly, the gridiron diplomat as he called himself. Most of the equipment wouldn’t pass US safety inspections. A good deal of them were too small for adult players. Turkish players were happy regardless.

Check out more photos on Sait’s blog.