Mehmet Buyukeksi: ‘We are taking the goal of exiting the group one step further; to come out on top’

President of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) Mehmet Buyukeksi said, ‘We are taking the goal of advancing from the group one step further; it’s not enough to just advance, we want to advance as first.’ President of the Turkish Football Federation Mehmet Buyukeksi met with media members following the Turkish National Team in Germany. Starting his words by mentioning the double celebration they had with the victory against Georgia, Buyukeksi stated, ‘We have a young and potential national team. We said double celebration and we achieved it. We called for fans to come to national matches wearing the national team jersey. Our expat fans followed this 100%. We said wear red and come. Our Fan Walk was also fantastic. There is a great excitement. We feel like home. Our fans are adding great enthusiasm to the European Football Championship. Yesterday, we all sang ‘Memleketim’ together at the top of our lungs. My voice also got hoarse. We turned the yellow wall of the Dortmund stadium into a red wall. We thank the fans, everywhere was red and white. We said we would always play at home, and that’s what happened. 50,000 out of the 60,000-seater stadium were Turkish.’
‘We told the players, everyone talks about 2002, 2008, you talk about 2024’ Mehmet Buyukeksi expressed that he told the players before the match that they would write history and have a great story, ‘I told our players, you will write the date before the match, you will have a great story to tell to your children. Everyone talks about 2002, 2008, you talk about 2024. We have a high-character good team. Our President called while he was still in the stands. He analyzed all the goals one by one. He talked to all of them.’
‘We are advancing the goal of getting out of the group one step further’ Evaluating the victory against Georgia and sharing his views on the upcoming match against Portugal, President Buyukeksi said, ‘We know the importance of the last goal. It’s important for goal difference. We are advancing the goal of getting out of the group one step further; it’s not enough to just advance, we want to advance as first. But the coach thinks step by step; the goal is big but the steps are small. The teams are very strong. The goal we conceded was also very bad. This goal was not fitting for us. Our disallowed goal was millimetric. If it was 2-0, we would have pulled away. Our victory against Portugal in an official match doesn’t exist. We need to play differently and achieve that. We started with misfortunes. Caglar got injured before the camp. Enes and Ozan got injured. Irfa
n Can got injured in the Poland match, it’s difficult for him to play. Ismail is in the squad but has problems. Zeki hasn’t fully recovered. In total, 7 of our players had issues.’ President Buyukeksi also made a statement regarding the fans’ interest, ‘We brought Antalya’s supporters. The drummers are from our local associations. There was a slight booing when Georgia’s National Anthem was played, this didn’t suit us. We are both neighbors and friends. UEFA penalizes for such things. Respect for national and religious values is important.’
‘Montella’s dream while playing was to be a coach in the championship’ Mehmet Buyukeksi stated that Technical Director Vincenzo Montella was very focused, ‘After the friendly matches, criticisms started for our coach. He was very focused before the match. His dream while playing in the European Championship was to be a coach in the championship. That’s important to him. He wasn’t even talking to his family. That’s why I went alone to meet him. It was his birthday, we cut a cake.’ Buyukeksi mentioned that he received many phone calls after the victory against Georgia, ‘I received many phone calls after the match, thanks to them. I couldn’t return to most of them. If someone sent me a personal message, I reply unless it’s a group message. This time I couldn’t keep up. Thank you to everyone.’