I wrote my first article about Modafen in April, which is a football club and a multi-faceted educational institution. Modafen's achievements are not limited to football. In many different fields of sport, it raises well-qualified and educated athletes and runs from national and international arenas to success. As one of Turkia’s exemplary models, Modafen has redefined the school-sport relationship between educational institutions, and I would like to tell you about it in depth in this article.

In my April article titled “The champions of our neighbourhood, Modafen”, I wrote that by winning the regional amateur league and becoming the champions, Modafen has come knocking on the door of the TFF 3.  league and will rise to this if they win the promotion match: https://serhansuzer.com/en/mahallemizin-gururu-sampiyon-modafen.

My wishes in this article came true and Modafen won another strong team in the district draws against a Çekmeköy team, by defeating 1877 Alemdağspor, rose to the 3rd League. I would like to share with you the story of this adventure which has not been easy and that Modafen is far beyond a football club.

It is worth mentioning that Alemdağ is one of the most important neighborhoods of Çekmeköy and 1877 Alemdağspor is a well-established football club. The encounter of two teams from the same district was an interesting coincidence. The match was played on the first Saturday in May in Yalova.

The exciting times behind the game

If we were to rewind the story further, playing in the Regional Amateur League (BAL) and entering the last 3 games with 5 points behind in second place, Modafen Football Club won 3 games in the play-offs which gave them the right to participate. By holding the championship at the last moment, Modafen came out victorious with a single goal and managed to rise to the 3rd League.

But what stress! I went to the house of my friend Fatih, the founder and coach of Modafen. From there we went to the hotel in Yalova where the team were staying. After spending some time there, I played with Fatih and Ceyda's sweet son Anka and we then made our way to the stadium.

Fatih entered the dressing room in a motivating manner and made the last speeches. We went to the stands. His wife Ceyda came to the stadium in the second half of the match.

During the match…

What happens during the match cannot be told about, it needs to be lived and experienced. Let me tell you briefly how it was: we witnessed two types of Turkish games in the stadium. On one hand, there were Alemdağ fans who were loudly cheering and swearing very often, and on the other hand there was Modafen fans with high level educations, who sang songs and anthems, who came to the match to have fun with their families…

It was an amazing sight. Especially when the match did not go as they want to, the Alemdağ fans cursed and swore at the referee, the federation, the club's president and coach Fatih and the Modafen schools.

Luckily, in the midst of two supporters, the leaders of Alemdağ and other relevant federation officials intervened in the incident and tried to silence each time they were blasphemed. I would like to share the images of the cheers on both sides of the match so that they come to life in your eyes:

 

 

 

We also held seats for Fatih's wife Ceyda, her son Anka and their employees who joined us in the second half of the game. We struggled to keep those seats. We told at least 6-7 people why we reserved a whole row to ourselves. When Ceyda and the others finally arrived, we were relieved. Both because of continually telling everyone that the seats are reserved and because we believed in the good luck of his son Anka, "okay, now we can watch the match with peace of mind," I said to myself.

A photo with Fatih’s son Anka

 

Modafen scored in the penalty spot 5 minutes before Ceyda entered the stadium. I would like to share with you the videos of Enes, who was the scorer of the teams goal, scoring in the penalty:

 

 

 

The last minutes of the game was really hard. In fact in the last minute, Alemdağ’s shot hit the pole. For some reason I was very comfortable. I knew we'd win the game. My thoughts came true and there was great joy at the end of the match. Here is what happened after the final whistle:

 

 

 

 

 

Our victory pose with Enes, who scored the only goal in the game 

 

At the end of the match, three friends of the Black Sea region smiled with pleasure: Salim, Fatih and I

 

Needless to say, all of this is a result of a very systematic effort. In fact, Fatih's vision of integrating education with sports and music as well as good education has a great impact. First of all, 5 players of the team are working as physical education teachers in the school and 2 of them are students in the school.

Here's the speech in the locker room after the game:

 

Fatih Kanberoğlu: A success story

To tell the story in more depth; While Fatih was a high school student, he had organized working groups before exams and gained fame among his classmates and younger students and made a name in and around the school. He provided his high school friends with support to prepare for the final exams in college classes, maths and science subjects and in Turkia had managed to become the 93rd with a perfect numerical score. While he was a second year student at the Industrial Engineering Department of Boğaziçi University, he rented an apartment on Kadıköy Bahariye Street and turned it into a study center. He trained his students for eight years with test preparation groups and test supplements, developed his student portfolio and gained a significant place in the education sector. Fatih Kanberoğlu's interactions aroused confidence and excitement despite his young age, so that the number of parents had increased day by day and continues to increase today.

In 2002, he moved his operations to a building in Moda, on Kagni Street, transformed and expanded it to a etut institute and with the growth and volume, in September 2006, again he rented another building in Moda, on Cem Street, thereby establishing Modafen Elementary School. Modafen, which was founded as a school of 26 including 6 students and 20 employees when it was first opened, reached 100 students at the end of its third year and reached more than 600 students at the end of its sixth year to which he also added kindergarten and high schools to the portfolio, resulting in an increase of up to 200 employees, forming a very successful family school.

And the rise of the football club…

His story at Modafen Football Club started in the 2011-2012 season by taking part in the 2nd Amateur League in Istanbul. In its first year in the league, Modafen Football Club finished the season by becoming the champions and was entitled to take part in the 1st Amateur League in the 2012-2013 season. In the 2012-2013 season, they finished the 1st Amateur League in the 17th Group in Istanbul and became the champions and got the chance to compete in the Super Amateur League. Modafen Football Club had no defeats in the second year of its establishment and therefore earned their second championship. In two years, they rose up to two levels and showed great success. In the 2013-2014 season, they finished second in the Istanbul Super Amateur League and qualified to the rankings and achieved fifth place in the classification group and directly promoted to the Regional Amateur League.

Finally, in the 2018-2019 season, where I followed Modafen's matches, they had a promotion game and by becoming champions in the Regional Amateur League, won the right to be promoted to the 3rd League. For more details, please visit Modafen's related links:

School: http://www.modafen.com.tr/

Football Club: www.modafenfutbolkulubu.com

Our conversation with the swimming instructor

There's more to it. Before the match, I met with Modafen's swimming instructor and this was the dialogue between us:

• Why don’t we have swimmers who will bring medals to us from the Olympics? They all come to a certain point, but after a certain age, they can't even qualify for international competitions.
• We have a long way to go. There's a big difference between us. Where shall I begin?
• You can start anywhere you like. Why can't we even imagine getting Olympic medals in swimming?
• There are not enough facilities in Turkia. Therefore there aren't enough athletes. And preparing for international organizations has got a lot to do with planning. In successful countries, children prepare for these competitions from a very young age. Those who are really talented in our country are noticed late or can't be supported by their family after a certain age. The children just fizzle out.
• So, are we too incapable as a population to make this planning? Why can other countries do it and we can't?
• In order to do this, serious resources need to be created and extensive time to be spent on long-term planning. That's what we do at Modafen.
• I hope you will succeed. All the best. We expect to receive a medal from you in the future.
• Thank you. I hope that in the future we will gain important international success.

Great success following this conversation

Just as I was preparing to write this article, we received some incredible news. Modafen Swimming Team took first place in the history of Turkish swimming in the 13th ISF World Schools Swimming Championship held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between 18-23 May. They became the World School Swimming Champions competing amongst strong competing countries like USA, Germany, China, Brazil and France. We are so proud! I congratulate everyone who contributed to this.

 

This is what it’s all about. Longing for international success in sports, the Modafen model in our country should be well studied and spread throughout the country. This way, we can grow an infrastructure with much stronger athletes. My greatest wish is that the athletes passing through such discipline, can draw an audience into the stands that they deserve.

 

Note: I wanted to add Modafen's prominent achievements in sports to this article and I ended up having a longer list than this one. Of course, being the World School Champion in swimming is the most extreme point of these achievements, but I want to share with you the following list from the school resources to tell you how much great they have achieved. I wish their success to increasingly continue.

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