🇹🇷🇩🇪 İlkay Gündoğan 🗣️ “My family is Turkish. I also consider myself a Turk. Some people question how Turkish I really am. It’s annoying. Just because I played for Germany doesn’t change the fact that I’m Turkish. Just because I play for Germany, does that mean I’m no longer Turkish? What am I then? I chose Germany because I had only played for Germany’s youth national teams. Türkiye never offered me the opportunity to play for their youth national teams. Almost everyone in my family supports Galatasaray.”

🇹🇷‼️ THE TURKS INVENTED FOOTBALL‼️ Historical records and centuries-old accounts reveal THE TRUTH between ancient Turkic peoples and the origins of football. And some of these details are absolutely INCREDIBLE! 👀 📜 1. TEPÜK - ALMOST 1.000 YEARS AGO! Between 1072 and 1074, the famous Turkic scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari documented a game called ‘Tepük’ in his Dîvânu Lugâti’t-Türk. The game involved kicking a specially crafted object with the feet. The Turkish Language Association (TDK) has even discussed Tepük as an early form of football. 🇹🇷 2. FOOTBALL-LIKE GAMES AMONG THE ANCIENT GÖKTÜRKS! Historical studies drawing on Chinese chronicles describe Göktürk children, including girls, playing games with leather balls filled with animal hair. Other accounts identify early Turkic groups as particularly skilled at football-like games! 🥅 3. TEAMS, GOALS AND RULES! Turkish sports historians have described ancient games involving: ⚽ Two teams of SIX players. 🥅 Goals formed by spears planted in the ground. 🐑 Balls made from inflated lambskin. ❌ Restrictions on touching the ball with the hands. 🚫 Rules preventing the ball from leaving a marked playing area. 👩 Women participating alongside men. 🏛️ 4. ANCIENT ACCOUNTS OF ORGANISED MATCHES! Accounts attributed to a Chinese observer named Hiuan describe mixed teams playing football-like matches in Central Asia. According to these accounts, players used their feet and heads to send the ball into the opposing goal, with matches taking place in temple courtyards. ⚔️ 5. FOOTBALL AS MILITARY TRAINING! Historical traditions associated with Timur describe soldiers playing ball games to develop their agility. These accounts are also discussed in Turkish football history publications. 📚 6. TFF In September 2022, the Turkish Football Federation published an article in its official TamSaha magazine discussing Tepük and historical accounts of Central Asian ball games. Some historical writings trace ball-game traditions back to the Huns and suggest that such games spread through Asia and eventually towards Europe. Archaeologists have also discovered approximately 3.000-year-old leather balls near Turfan in Central Asia. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England established the foundations of modern organised football in 1863. But Turkic peoples had been playing games involving kicking balls or other objects with their feet CENTURIES before that! 🇹🇷🇦🇿🇺🇿🇰🇿🇹🇲🇰🇬