Özge Kanbay (4 November 199625 February 2019) was a Turkish women's footballer, and female football referee. She was also a rugby sevens player. The 2019–20 Turkish women's football season and the 2020 Turkish Women's Rugby sevens League season were named in honor of her, after she died in February 2019 from cancer.

Private life

Kanbay was born in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, Germany, on 4 November 1996. She has an elder sister Gamze Kanbay Özkan. Kanbay was a final grade student of physical education and sports teaching in the Faculty of Sports Sciences at the Manisa Celal Bayar University (MCBÜ).

Playing career

Kanbay obtained her footballer license from the

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

-based club Karşıyaka BESEM Spor on 31 October 2013. She appeared for her team in 14 matches of the 2013-14 Women's Second League and scored four goals. Her team finished the league season as group runner-up. She enjoyed her team's promotion to the Women's First League in the 2014–15 season. She capped in ten matches of the Women's First League. At the end of the season, her team was relegated to the Second League. She then transferred to Manisa Esnaf GS to play in the Women's Third League. After appearing in six matches and netting six goals in the first half of the season, she ended her football playing career. Kanbay was also a

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

player.

Officiating career

Kanbay began her officiating career on 9 September 2016 as an assistant referee in a Regional Development Boys U-15 match. On 3 December the same year, she officiated a Regional Development Boys U-14 match as referee. She served as an assistant referee in a Women's Third League match on 25 December 2016. She was tasked as the fourth official in a Men's U-21 match on 17 September 2017, and the as referee again in a Men's U-21 match on 30 September that year. On 3 December 2017, Kanbay officiated for the first time a Women's First League match as a referee. She continued her career as referee mostly for Men's U-21 and Women's First League matches. She served at various positions in 56 matches until 7 May 2018.

Illness and death

Kanbay contracted

uterine cancer Uterine cancer, also known as womb cancer, includes two types of cancer that develop from the tissues of the uterus. Endometrial cancer forms from the lining of the uterus, and uterine sarcoma forms from the muscles or support tissue of the ute ...

. She was hospitalized in the

Hafsa Sultan Ayşe Hafsa Sultan (; 1478/1479 - 19 March 1534), was a concubine of Selim I and the mother of Suleiman the Magnificent. She was the first Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and, during the period between her son's enthronement in 1520 until ...

Hospital of the MCBÜ in

Manisa Manisa () is a city in Turkey's Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province, lying approximately 40 km northeast of the major city of İzmir. The city forms the urban part of the districts Şehzadeler and Yunusemre, with ...

for treatment, where she died at the age of 22 on 25 February 2019.

Legacy

The

Turkish Football Federation The Turkish Football Federation (; TFF) is the governing body of association football in Turkey. It was formed on 23 April 1923, and joined FIFA the same year and UEFA in 1962. It organizes the Turkey national football team, the Turkish Foo ...

named the 2019-20

women's football Women's football most often refers to: * Women's association football Women's football may also refer to: * Women's gridiron football * Women's Australian rules football * Ladies' Gaelic football * Women's rugby league * Women's rugby union ...

league seasons in her commemoration. The Turkish Rugby Federation dedicated the 2020 Women's

Rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

League season to Özge Kanbay. The newly established women's

beach rugby Beach rugby is a sport that is based on rugby union. Currently there is not a centralized regulation of the sport as in beach soccer or beach volleyball, but leagues are common across Europe. The sport is particularly popular in Italy, in the B ...

team, named "Özge Kanbay" in honor of her, won the women's category of the 4th International Istanbul Beach rugby tournament held in

Kadıköy Kadıköy () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district on the Asian side of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 25 km2, and its population is 467,919 (2023). It is a large and populous area in the Asian si ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

in mid July 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanbay, Ozge 1996 births Sportspeople from Hamburg German sportspeople of Turkish descent Manisa Celal Bayar University alumni Turkish women's footballers 21st-century Turkish sportswomen Karşıyaka BESEM Spor players Turkish football referees Female rugby sevens players 2019 deaths Deaths from uterine cancer Deaths from cancer in Turkey Women association football referees Women's association football players not categorized by position