I work directly across the river 100 metres from the stadium where the main Mersin soccer team, Mersin Idman Yurdu, play in.

Today, via a new article on the web, I found out an Australian soccer player was playing for Mersin Idman Yurdu until last week when he returned to Australia and signed with Sydney FC.

How did I not know?

Admittedly, Ufuk Talay is of Turkish origin so he would have been treated as a local here. If he was an Australian of non-Turkish origin I’m sure every local would have told me of his existence 10 times over.

See the Sydney Morning Herald (subscription) and SBS for their versions on the story.

On a side note: it is funny how many Australian websites write “Mersin Idman Yurdu” as “Mersin Ydman Yurdu”. This is because the capital Turkish capital dotted I (“İ”) often appears as a “Y” on non-Turkish enabled computers.