Çiğdem Belci (born 17 June 1987) is a Turkish

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 ...

defender currently playing in the

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

for

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

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 ...

with jersey number 33. She is a member of the Turkish national team since 2003.

Early life

Çiğdem Belci was born on 17 June 1987 in

Mersin Mersin () is a large city and port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of Mediterranean Region, Turkey, southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of the Mersin Province (formerly İçel). It is made up of four district governorates ...

, southern Turkey. She has three older sisters and a younger brother, who follows her footsteps playing in a feeder club in Mersin. At the age of eight, she began playing football with boys in the neighborhood. Convinced by her daughter's interest, the father took her then to Mersin Camspor, and registered her. However, feared of her daughter's future, he wanted her leave the club. Her mother supported Çiğdem, and was able to stop the father's pressure. Her father changed his mind when she transferred to successful clubs and continued with her higher education. She studied physical education and sports at

Ondokuz Mayıs University Ondokuz Mayıs University (OMU) is a major state university founded in 1975 in Samsun, Turkey. The university bears the name “19 May”, which marks the date when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, came to Samsun in or ...

Samsun Samsun is a List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, city on the north coast of Turkey and a major Black Sea port. The urban area recorded a population of 738,692 in 2022. The city is the capital of Samsun Province which has a population of ...

. After graduation, she was appointed a teacher.

Club career

Çiğdem Belci obtained her license from her hometown club

Mersin Camspor Mersin () is a large city and port on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of the Mersin Province (formerly İçel). It is made up of four district governorates, each having its own municipality: Akdeniz, Mez ...

on 1 September 1999, where she played until the end of 2007–08 season and capped 13 times scoring three goals. She moved to Mersingücü Cengiz Topelspor and after one season, she transferred to the Black Sea club

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional sports club located in the city of Trabzon, located in Black Sea region, northeastern Turkey. Established in 1967 through the merger of several local clubs, Trabzonspor is one of the most prominent A ...

for the 2009–10 season. The next season, Belci signed for the Istanbul-based club Ataşehirspor, and enjoyed two consecutive league championships in 2011 and 2012. She debuted in the

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. ...

playing against

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n side

Gintra Universitetas FC Gintra is a Lithuanian women's football club from Šiauliai. History The club plays in the highest Lithuanian league, the A Lyga and has won 13 championships so far. The fourth one in 2005 and every championship since then. After its champion ...

on 11 August 2011. She participated in three group matches of the qualifying round. The

next year "Next Year" is a song released as the last single from the third Foo Fighters' album '' There Is Nothing Left to Lose''. History A shorter version (running at just 3:21 compared to the original's 4:36) was released as a single in 2000 and wa ...

, she played again in three qualifying round matches. However, her team was not successful either in 2011–12 or in

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

to advance further to the knockout stage. For the 2015–16 season, she signed with

Kireçburnu Spor Kireçburnu Spor Women's Football () is a women's association football, women's football team based in Kireçburnu, Sarıyer, Istanbul playing in the Turkish Women's First Football League. It was formed in 2010 as part of the 1951-established Foot ...

, which was recently promoted to the Women's First League. Belci serves as the captain of the team. In the 2016–17 season, she returned to her former club Ataşehir Belediyespor.

Beşiktaş

In the 2018–19 league season, she transferred to Beşiktaş J.K. She enjoyed the champion title of her team in the 2018–19 season. She took part at the 2019–20 UEFA Women's Champions League – Group 9 matches. She played in one match of the

2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying rounds The 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying rounds began on 17 August and ended on 9 September 2021. A total of 68 teams competed in the group stage qualifying rounds of the 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League, which includes two ro ...

Fatih Karagümrük

In the 2022–23 Super League season, she transferred to Fatih Karagümrük S.K.

Beylerbeyi

End July 2023, she transferred to

Beylerbeyi Beylerbeyi is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Üsküdar, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its population is 5,168 (2022). It is located on the Asian shore of the Bosporus, to the north of the Bosphorus Bridge. It is bordered on the ...

, which play for the first time in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

Galatasaray

On 17 February 2025 she signed a contract with Turkish giant

until the end of the 2024–25 season.

International career

Belci made her first appearance in the Turkey women's U-19 national team in the match against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

juniors at the International Norte Alentejano Tournament held in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

on 28 May 2003. She capped five times in the junior women's national team. On 6 August 2003, she debuted in the national team playing in the friendly match against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Her international participations followed at the

UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying Qualifying for UEFA Women's Euro 2009 determined which 11 teams joined Finland women's national football team, Finland, the hosts of the 2009 tournament, to play for the UEFA Women's Championship. Preliminary round 20 teams were divided into 5 g ...

round (

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

), at the UEFA Support International Tournaments (

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

and

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

). Belci played in seven of the eight matches at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 5 matches (

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

) as well as in eight of ten matches at the

UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying – Group 2 The UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying – Group 2 was contested by six teams competing for one spot for the final tournament. Spain's María Paz Vilas, María Paz set a new competition record when she scored seven goals against Kazakhstan. Stand ...

(

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

). In 2013, she participated in all the three

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 6 The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification UEFA Group 6 was a UEFA qualifying group for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. The group comprised Belarus, England, Montenegro, Turkey, Ukraine and Wales. The group winners qualified directly for the ...

matches against English and Montenegron women.

Career statistics

Honours

Turkish Women's First Football League :;Ataşehir Belediyespor :: ''Winners'' (3):

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2011–12, 2017–18 :: ''Runners-up'' (3):

, 2013–14, 2014–15 ::''Third places'' (1): 2016–17 :;Beşiktaş J.K. :: ''Winners'' (2): 2018–19,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Belci, Cigdem Living people 1987 births Footballers from Mersin Turkish women's footballers Trabzonspor women's players Ataşehir Belediyespor players Kireçburnu Spor players Turkey women's youth international footballers Turkey women's international footballers Ondokuz Mayıs University alumni Turkish schoolteachers Women's association football defenders Beşiktaş J.K. (women's football) players Turkish Women's Football Super League players Fatih Karagümrük S.K. (women's football) players 21st-century Turkish sportswomen Beylerbeyi S.K. (women's football) players Galatasaray S.K. (women's football) players