Zeynep Mestan started training at 13 without ever having kicked a ball. At 22 she is head coach of Turgutluspor. Her path runs through the Faculty of Sport Sciences at Ege University, a year of sessions with a men’s Super Amateur side, and a senior career that began at Konak Belediyespor.
After taking the job she answered heavy criticism with a line that travelled: “Was there a Mourinho at Turgutluspor?” She believes those attacks were about her gender more than her age. Speaking to womengool.com, the young coach talks about how she started, why the board chose her, who she looks up to, and what she would tell women players who dream of moving from the pitch to the dugout.
Can you tell us how you started playing football? How did your PE teacher come to guide you?
When I first started I had no club affiliation. I was barely even aware of women’s football clubs. At 13, as someone who had never touched a ball, I began training. Then my PE teacher saw how determined I was and said we should form a school team and go to matches. After the school team I met my coach Mustafa Sezer at Fikri Altay Sports Club, which was close to my home at the time. He took me into the Super Amateur team’s sessions. I trained with the men in that Super Amateur side for about a year. After that Mustafa called Ali Alanç, the Konak Belediyespor coach, and sent me there. That is where my official football career began.
How did your education at Ege University’s Faculty of Sport Sciences shape your vision as a head coach?
I think Ege University is a factory that produces football coaches and administrators. I tried to watch and learn from every behaviour of our lecturers in the football branch. There you do not only learn the specifics of sport; you also learn how to manage an organisation properly and take it towards success.
What reasons did the club board give when they appointed you? What set you apart from other candidates?
I think every coach at our club is qualified and would have been a good fit for this role. The reason I was appointed may be that I had been inside the new structure from the beginning, that I fully understood how it worked, and that I had a wider pool of players in my hands.
What was your first reaction when the Turgutluspor offer came? Did you hesitate before saying yes?
When the president told me, I was very surprised — I honestly thought he was joking. But after that I accepted without any hesitation. Being head coach of a club this big is not an opportunity that comes along every day.
I think the criticism was about my gender. I am not the only 22-year-old coach working in the amateur division.
After you took the job you answered heavy criticism by saying, “Was there a Mourinho at Turgutluspor?” Do you think most of that criticism focused on your age, or on your gender?
I think the criticism was about my gender. I am not the only 22-year-old coach working in the amateur division. Turgutlu is a big community, and when people have put their hands under the stone I do not think they should be criticised before they have even started the job. If this board had not taken over Turgutluspor, Turgutlu would not even have been able to enter the league. To be frank: if they had thought I could not handle this job, I can assure you they would not have put me in charge of the team. The debt that has been taken on and the transfer budgets are not small amounts. Nobody gives those budgets to someone they think cannot do the job just for the sake of publicity.
Which head coach has influenced you most in your career, and who do you take as a role model?
I want to answer this with a woman as well. I would say our coach from the Konak period, Monica Raluca Simes. I think she is a top-level coach both in her knowledge of the game and in her ability to make the right moves.
Finally, many women footballers who read this interview may be playing now and dreaming of becoming a head coach one day, as you did. Drawing on what you have lived through so far, what advice would you give them that is both encouraging and realistic?
They should never give up. Life sometimes puts opportunities in front of you when you least expect them. As a woman who has taken this opportunity, I will work very hard and become a champion — not only for myself, but for my sisters too.
