Özlem Başyurt

Özlem Başyurt — Biography

Özlem Başyurt is a sportswoman from Giresun who wore the shirt of the Turkey women's national football team in the mid-1990s and later turned to basketball coaching. Today the centre of her working life is physical education: she teaches at Tevfik Ercan Anadolu High School in Florya, Istanbul.

She finished middle school in her home town, then graduated from the Çankaya İMKB Hotel Management and Tourism Vocational High School in Ankara and studied physical education at Gazi University. Her football path began on 28 March 1994, when she obtained her licence from the Ankara-based club Osmanlıspor; after playing there in 1994-95 she moved to the newly founded Gürtaşspor. Called up to the national team, she played on 24 August 1996 in the UEFA Women's Euro 1997 qualifier, Group 8, against Ukraine.

On the basketball side, she played briefly for Çevre Orman SK in 2006-07 and in 2014 she earned a D-category coaching certificate. In 2016-17 she coached the Sortie team in Büyükçekmece, Istanbul, of which she is also the president.