Filiz Koç (born 6 October 1986), aka Filiz Heilmann or Filiz Heilmann Koç, is a

Turkish-German Turks in Germany, also referred to as German Turks and Turkish Germans ( or ''Deutschtürken''; , also known as ''Gurbetçiler'' or ''Almancılar''), are ethnic Turkish people living in Germany. These terms are also used to refer to German-born ...

women's footballer who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

in the Turkish Women's First League for

1207 Antalya Muratpaşa Belediye Spor 1207 Antalya Spor, a.k.a. 1207 Antalyaspor, is a women's association football, women's football team based in Antalya playing in the Turkish Women's First Football League. Current chairman of the club is Süleyman Türk. History The women's t ...

. She is a member of the Turkey women's team. She also has a media career as model, beauty pageant contestant, actress and sideline reporter.

Early life

Filiz Koç was born to a Turkish father and a German mother in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

, Turkey on 6 October 1986. Her father, Savaş Koç, played football for the Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

-team

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

between 1986 and 1990. Her national-footballer father met his later wife during a football match in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. The couple married in Turkey, but moved to Germany when Filiz was three years old. where her father continued his football career playing for the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

team

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

. At age 16, she was naturalized in Germany, holding now

dual citizenship Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one sovereign state, country under its nationality law, nationality and citizenship law as a national or cit ...

. Filiz Koç completed her education in a private school to become an instructor for sports and fitness. In her early years, she preferred to be called after her mother's family name "Heilmann" hoping so to have more opportunities. Later on, however, she began using her father's surname "Koç".

Sports career

Inspired by her father's sports profession, Filiz Koç developed a passion for football in her childhood at home. Already at age ten, she decided to become a footballer.

Club

She began football playing in 1997 at age eleven, entering the German club

TSV Havelse TSV Havelse is a German association football club based in Garbsen, Lower Saxony, near Hanover. History The club was founded in 1912 as ''FC Pelikan-Havelse'' by a group of thirteen young men from the small village of Havelse. They took their n ...

based near

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

. The next season, she moved to Mellendorfer TV, and enjoyed in 2008 her team's promotion to the Group North of 2nd Women's Bundesliga (). In 2009, she transferred to another 2nd-League-team FFC Oldesloe 2000, where she briefly played. In the 2011–12 season, she rejoined her first team TSV Havelse in the Women's Regional League North (). The next season, she resigned from professional football, and was loaned out to SC Wedemark, which competed in the Landesliga (State League) until the team fell apart at the end of the 2014–15 season. She was taken over by

TSV Limmer Tab-separated values (TSV) is a simple, text-based file format for storing tabular data. Records are separated by newlines, and values within a record are separated by tab characters. The TSV format is thus a delimiter-separated values format, ...

, and played in the Regionalliga one season. In September 2015, she moved in a loan-out contract to the Turkish club

, which had finished the 2014–15 season in the

Turkish Women's Second League Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The wor ...

as champion, and was so promoted to the Women"s First League. The release approval of her former club TSV Limmer for her to play in Turkey was set to run out at the end of the 2015–16 season, end of March 2016. At age 20, she suffered a

nasal fracture A nasal fracture, commonly referred to as a broken nose, is a fracture of one of the bones of the nose. Symptoms may include bleeding, swelling, bruising, and an inability to breathe through the nose. They may be complicated by other facial fra ...

during a

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

game, and had to undergo a corrective surgery later on.

International

In 2002 at age 16, Filiz Koç was called up to the Turkey girls' under-17 team. She played three games before she had to stay away from the pitch due to a severe muscle injury. In 2009, she appeared in two matches of the Turkey women's team. She was called up again in 2015, and played in the friendly match against

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

on 19 August 2015. Koç took part at the

UEFA Women's Euro 2017 qualifying Group 5 The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach football in Europe and the transcontinental countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan ...

game against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

on 21 October the same year.

Career statistics

In media

Filiz Koç acts as a model, and appears in advertisings. At age 18, she participated at the local beauty pageant "Miss Hannover" upon her mother's request, and placed second. Representing Turkey, she became runner-up "Miss EM" (EM is the German language abbreviation for

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

) among 16 contestants ranking after Domenica Huzvarova from the Czech Republic at a beauty pageant held at

Europa-Park Europa-Park is a theme park in Rust, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Covering a total area of 95 hectares, twenty themed areas offer around a hundred attractions, including shows and fourteen roller coasters. The park also includes six hotels, a c ...

, Germany on the occasion of the

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA ( ...

. Filiz Koç took part in 2010 at the

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

'' Die perfekte Minute'' broadcast by

Sat.1 Sat.1 () is a German free-to-air television channel that is a part of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media Group. It is considered the first privately owned television network in Germany, having been launched in January 1984 as ''PKS'' ''(Programmgesell ...

, and won a money prize of 75,000 by exhibiting her

freestyle football Freestyle football is the art of juggling a football using any part of the body, excluding the elbows to the hands. It combines football tricks, dance, acrobatics and music to entertain onlookers and compete with opponents. The official governin ...

art. In June 2011, Filiz Koç performed the role of "Fadime Gülüc", a murdered fictional German woman footballer of Turkish descent in the episode ''Im Abseits'' ('' In Offside'') of

police procedural The police procedural, police show, or police crime drama is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasises the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agency, law enforcement agencies ...

television series ''

Tatort ("Crime Scene") is a German-language police procedural television series that has been running continuously since 1970 with 30 feature-length episodes per year, making it the longest-running German TV drama. Developed by the German public-se ...

'' aired by the ARD channel. She worked as a

sideline reporter In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present tense. There are two main types of sports broadcast ...

Sky Deutschland Sky Deutschland GmbH, branded as Sky, is a German media company that operates a direct broadcast satellite Pay TV platform in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (through Sky Switzerland). It provides a collection of basic and premium digital su ...

for the 2. Bundesliga matches beginning with the 2011–12 football season. Filiz Koç appeared in the German

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...

shows '' Die Model WG'' and ''Das Model und der Freak'' aired by the German commercial TV channel

ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...

References

External links

* *
Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koc, Filiz 1986 births Living people Footballers from Ankara Turkish people of German descent German women's footballers Turkish women's footballers 21st-century Turkish sportswomen Women's association football midfielders German female models German actresses German beauty pageant winners Turkish beauty pageant winners Women sports commentators Turkey women's youth international footballers 1207 Antalya Spor players Turkey women's international footballers 21st-century German sportswomen