We are a ''football'' country

With the last few national football matches, we all began to talk about football more than ever. There are many other sport fields and many other successful players. But in Turkiye, the main focus is always on football.

Recently, we watched many successful football players from Turkiye. We all gathered together to support them. As a very nationalist country, we proudly experience EURO24 together. But can we say that we do the same for other sports too?

I think, in the beginning of the 2020s, we started to watch volleyball too. Our national women's team, Filenin Sultanlari, did amazing stuff. Since then, we have been getting more familiar with a sport other than football. We gathered to watch our successful female volleyball players too. We proudly watched them too. However, this is a very recent activity for us. Before the 2020s, the only important sport was football. Even though volleyball is getting more popular, I do not believe it is enough. For instance, the male volleyball team is not even popular.

There are some types of people who do not care about other sports. There are some football fans who criticize the volleyball players and attack their sexual orientation. Or, basically, just their gender. They attack these successful women, because they do not like their clothes. But, they do not care about how much successful they are. Also, when it comes to football, it is not like that. They do not judge football players.

But did these fans come out of nowhere? Absolutely not. We see this much obsession with football because Turkiye just cared about it for a very long time. Do not think it changed because volleyball is popular now. No, nothing has changed at all.

When you search Turkiye and sport on Google, you will mainly see football. When you talk with an older Turkish citizen about sports, they will probably talk about football. Does this mean we are a country of football? Are we less successful in other fields?

There are many other fields. There are many other successful athletes. For example, we have met with a new athlete in recent years: Mete Gazoz. But before he won an Olympic medal, he was still a great archer. But we could only witness his Olympic success because the media does not give enough value to other sports. We do not see what individual athletes do or what other teams achieve.

Berfu Cengiz is a great tennis player. But I can only follow her successes on social media. And I just saw a tweet congratulating her. That is all. I do not see her name on TV, the most used media device.

Tutya Yilmaz, Ahmet Onder, and Adem Asil... Best gymasts in Turkiye. However, what do we know about them? Are we given enough information about what they do? What do they achieve? No. Is it because these sports are harder? No. Is it because they are less interesting? No. It is just because our country got used to seeing football so much that they do not ask for the others.

What about the team games? There are Turkish basketball players in NBA. Like Alperen Sengun, Cedi Osman, Furkan Korkmaz... They are successful, but how many of us watched their matches? Not many.

Of course, we have many successes in football too. But we have many other successful teams and athletes in other fields. We should support them as much as we support football teams. These talented people are from our country. They are our sisters and brothers. We all have to acknowledge other sport fields. We have to do this because, even with this little recognition, there are many great athletes. Imagine what will happen if we recognize them more than ever and are supportive.

Do not forget to stay healthy and learn more about our national talents! There are many types of sports, and there are many types of competitions! If you were not encouraged enough to learn about or do any of them, take this blog as an encouragement. Thank you for your time. Bye!