Nagihan Avanaş

Nagihan Avanaş — Biography

Nagihan Avanaş is a forward in the Turkish Women's Football Super League who wears number 21 for the Istanbul club Fatih Karagümrük. She was born in the Susuz district of Kars and took out her playing licence in Istanbul. Away from the pitch she works as a physical education and sports teacher.

Her career began with a licence from the Istanbul club Sosyal Hizmetler Gençlik ve Spor on 25 May 2011. She then spent two seasons at Ovacık Gençlik ve Spor in Karabük. In 2013-14 she moved to Ataşehir Belediyespor, finishing runner-up with them in the Women's First League in 2013-14 and 2014-15. In 2014 she was part of a girls' vocational high school team that won the ISF World Schools Futsal Championship in Cagliari, Italy. She sat out the 2016-17 season, joined Kireçburnu Spor in October 2017, and returned to Ataşehir for the second half of 2018-19. In December 2021 she signed for the newly founded Fatih Karagümrük, and in 2021-22 the club finished second in the Super League.

She wore the national shirt at a young age: on 19 April 2012 she made her debut for the Turkey girls' U-17 team against Azerbaijan in the UEFA Development Cup. She has spoken openly about the difficulties women footballers face in Turkey, in particular how rarely they get news coverage and how many of them struggle financially.