{"id":29379,"date":"2025-08-11T18:10:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T09:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=29379"},"modified":"2025-08-11T18:10:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T09:10:48","slug":"deltras-makes-history-with-demiroglu-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2025\/08\/11\/deltras-makes-history-with-demiroglu-signing\/","title":{"rendered":"Deltras Makes History with Demiro\u011flu Signing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indonesian Championship side Deltras FC made national history on August 11 by announcing the signing of Turkish centre-back G\u00f6ktu\u011f Demiro\u011flu \u2014 the first player from Turkey to feature in Indonesia\u2019s professional leagues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Turkish footballers have long built a reputation as dependable performers across Europe, it\u2019s relatively rare to see them playing outside the continent. A handful, such as Merih Demiral (Al-Ahli, Saudi Arabia), Ravil Tagil (Al-Jazira, UAE), Serdar Dursun (Persepolis, Iran), and Deniz Hummet (Gamba Osaka, Japan), currently ply their trade in Asia. Past Turkish greats like \u0130lhan Mans\u0131z (Vissel Kobe), Alpay \u00d6zalan (Urawa Red Diamonds), and Burak Y\u0131lmaz (Beijing Guoan) also tried their luck in Asian leagues.<\/p>\n

In Southeast Asia, however, Turkish players are even more of a rarity \u2014 and those who have made the leap often have one particular Filipino club to thank for opening the door.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Dynamic Herb Cebu, founded by Filipino-based Turkish businessman Ugur Tasci, forged a partnership with then-S\u00fcper Lig outfit Hatayspor. Although the collaboration was disrupted by the devastating 2023 earthquake that struck Hatay Province and its surrounding regions, it still enabled several Hatayspor youth players to gain first-team experience in Southeast Asia. It also gave Cebu access to a wider scouting network for Turkish and Turkic-descent players across Europe.<\/p>\n

Young attacking midfielder Mert Alt\u0131noz and striker Arda Cinkir were the first to make the jump, moving directly from Hatayspor\u2019s junior squad to Cebu\u2019s senior team for the 2022\/23 campaign, where both quickly established themselves as key players.<\/p>\n

The following season saw a new wave of arrivals: no-nonsense defender Demiro\u011flu, Turkish-Dutch goalkeeper Yusuf Cekic, and right winger Devrim Yanik. Unlike Alt\u0131noz and Cinkir, these three did not move straight from Hatayspor \u2014 though Yanik had spent time with their U-19 side \u2014 but instead joined from lower-league clubs in Spain, the Netherlands, and Turkey, experiencing mixed fortunes in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Yanik and Cekic stayed on for the 2024\/25 season, while Demiro\u011flu briefly departed before returning mid-way through the campaign. Another Turkish recruit, Berke \u00d6nde, joined from Hatayspor, but by season\u2019s end only Cekic and Demiro\u011flu remained, with Yanik and \u00d6nde leaving in the mid-season transfer window.<\/p>\n

Now, with experience from the Philippines Football League, Copa Paulino Alcantara, and the AFC Cup under his belt, Demiro\u011flu has embarked on a new challenge \u2014 anchoring Deltras\u2019 backline as they push for promotion to the top flight for the first time since 2011\/12. If successful, he could well blaze a trail for more young Turkish players to venture beyond their comfort zone and explore one of Asia\u2019s most promising emerging football markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indonesian Championship side Deltras FC made national history on August 11 by announcing the signing of Turkish centre-back G\u00f6ktu\u011f Demiro\u011flu \u2014 the first player from Turkey to feature in Indonesia\u2019s professional leagues. While Turkish footballers have long built a reputation as dependable performers across Europe, it\u2019s relatively rare to see them playing outside the continent. A handful, such as Merih Demiral (Al-Ahli, Saudi Arabia), Ravil Tagil (Al-Jazira, UAE), Serdar Dursun (Persepolis, Iran), and Deniz Hummet (Gamba Osaka, Japan), currently ply their trade in Asia. Past Turkish greats like \u0130lhan Mans\u0131z (Vissel Kobe), Alpay \u00d6zalan (Urawa Red Diamonds), and Burak Y\u0131lmaz (Beijing Guoan) also tried their luck in Asian leagues. In … Continue reading “Deltras Makes History with Demiro\u011flu Signing”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":25841,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,26],"tags":[2983,2549,3009,1998,3008,3010,91,3007,106,95,1619],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29380,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29379\/revisions\/29380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}