Selin Kuralay (born 25 January 1985 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia) is an Australian soccer player of Turkish ancestry. She plays at national league level for Australian W-League team

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victor ...

Club career

Junior football

Kuralay took up football as a six-year-old, playing for North Coburg. She later played with

Ringwood City Ringwood City Soccer Club is an Australian soccer club from Ringwood, a suburb of Melbourne. The club was formed in 1953 as Wilhelmina by Dutch Australians. The club currently competes in Victorian State League Division 4 East, where it has b ...

and

Box Hill United Box Hill United Soccer Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in the Melbourne suburb of Box Hill. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 3. United is based at Wembley Park in Box Hill South. ...

. In 2001, she was jointly awarded (with

Spase Dilevski Spase Dilevski ( mk, Спасе Дилевски; born 13 May 1985) is an Australian former footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Club career Dilevski started his career as a junior for Victorian lower league team Sydenham Park wher ...

) the Weinstein Medal as

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

n Junior Player of the Year. She is the only female footballer to have won the medal.

WNSL

Kuralay made her debut at national league level in 1999 when she played for Victoria Vision in the Australian

Women's National Soccer League The Women's National Soccer League (WNSL) was Australia's top women's association football league. Originally known as the Ansett Australia Summer Series for sponsorship reasons, the WNSL began in 1996 consisting of six clubs and continued thr ...

. She won the Rising Star award for the league in the 2000–01 season. In 2004 Kuralay played for the

Queensland Academy of Sport The Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) is an elite sports institute set up in 1991 by the Queensland Government to support athletes in the state of Queensland. Its headquarters are currently located at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre in ...

in the WNSL, scoring two goals.

W-League (USA)

In 2005 Kuralay played 12 matches for the Hampton Roads Piranhas in the American W-League.

College soccer

Florida State University

Kuralay began her college soccer career for Florida State University in the Atlantic Coast Conference. In 2005, her first season for FSU, she scored 16 goals and made nine assists both of which were records for a first year player. Kuralay was a first team

National Soccer Coaches Association of America The United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)) is an organization of American soccer coaches founded in 1941. It is the largest soccer coaches organization in the world, with more than 3 ...

All-America team member. She was a semifinalist in the 2005 Hermann Trophy. She was one of 11

Soccer America Magazine ''Soccer America'', the oldest soccer-specific media publisher in the US, was founded in 1971 by Clay Berling in Albany, California. The magazine is headquartered in Oakland, California. History and profile The magazine was founded by Clay Be ...

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

s for 2005. In 2006, her second season, she tied the FSU record for game-winning goals. She was also selected in Soccer Buzz Magazine's All-America team

Savannah College of Art and Design

Kuralay played in 2008 for

Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private nonprofit art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. Founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the Uni ...

The Sun Conference The Sun Conference (TSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Seven of the ten full member institutions are located in Florida, with three in Georgia. The Sun Conference c ...

. In her only season at SCAD she scored 10 goals and laid off five assists in 15 matches. She was named in the 2008

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its st ...

All-America team.

W-League (Australia)

In 2008 Kuralay joined the

. She scored two goals on her debut to help Victory defeat

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club participates in the A-League Men under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was founded in 2003 to fil ...

International career

Under 19

In 2002 Kuralay played for the Australian team at the

FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship The FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup is an international association football tournament, organized by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), for national teams of women under the age of 20. The tournament is held in even-numbere ...

in Canada. In May 2002 she scored five goals in Australia's 13–0 win in a World Cup Qualifying match against

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

. She was selected for her second U-19 World Championship in 2004, which was held in Thailand.

Senior women's team

After making her debut against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in February 2004, Kuralay played 22 times for the Australia women's national football (soccer) team and scored two goals. Kuralay played three matches for the

Australian women's football team The Australia women's national soccer team is overseen by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is currently a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) s ...

at the Athens Olympics and also represented Australia at the 2002 and 2004 FIFA Under-19 Women's World Championship finals.

Honours

Individual

*Weinstein Medal – Joint Winner – 2001 *

Rising Star – Winner – 2001 *

All-America team member * Hermann Trophy Semifinalist – 2005. *Soccer America Magazine MVP – 2005 *Soccer Buzz Magazine – All-America team – 2006 *

All-America team – 2008

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuralay, Selin 1985 births Living people Australian women's soccer players Australian people of Turkish descent Soccer players from Melbourne Florida State University alumni Melbourne Victory FC (A-League Women) players Adelaide United FC (A-League Women) players A-League Women players Olympic soccer players of Australia Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Victorian Institute of Sport alumni Australia women's international soccer players Women's association football midfielders Florida State Seminoles women's soccer players Ringwood City SC players Australian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Australian expatriate women's soccer players Sportswomen from Victoria (Australia)