Turkey Looks Abroad for Women Players
Sky Blue FC made history last season as the first WPS team to play abroad, taking part in a four-team tournament in Turkey. The 2009 WPS champions participated along with their partner team, the 2010 and 2011 Damallsvenskan champion LdB FC Malmo of Sweden, two-time Danish league defending champion Fortuna Hjorring and FK Energiya of Russia. Sky Blue made the final but lost to Malmo 1-0. Interestingly, no Turkish side was involved in the tournament and plans to expand the tournament to eight teams for 2012 still would be limited to foreign sides. The Turkish league is not of a standard where any of their teams could complete against these top franchises. The presence of these visitors however--all current or former champions of their countries’ premier leagues--was an important step in the development of the women’s game in Turkey, along with an increased emphasis on their national teams’ program. A key element of the later has been the recruitment of diaspora—players of Turkish descent who were raised abroad.
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