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At 2:46 p.m., a black Benz drove up to Gahlenschen Strasse 111 at SV Türkiyemspor in Bochum. None other than Frank-Walter Steinmeier left the company. The Federal President visited the Ruhr area together with his wife Elke Büdenbender. The occasion is the German-Turkish recruitment agreement of 1961, when the booming Federal Republic urgently needed workers to continue fueling the economic miracle after the end of the Second World War.
After flying visits to a steelworks in Mülheim and the Ruhr Museum on the grounds of the Zeche Zollverein World Heritage Site in Essen, Bochum’s Hamme district was the third stage of Steinmeier’s Tour de Ruhr on Tuesday. Ceyhan Sahingöz, first chairman of SV Türkiyemspor Bochum, reports on an unforgettable day with a head of state who is not at all stately and meets normal citizens at eye level.
FUSSBALL.DE: Mr. Sahingöz, how was it for you, your fellow board members and the other people involved, to be able to greet the German President on the sports field?
Ceyhan Sahingöz: On the one hand, visiting such a high-ranking state guest means a lot of organizational effort, because, for example, safety has to be guaranteed and health regulations also have to be observed in times of a pandemic. On the other hand, Mr. Steinmeier, even if he is the Federal President, is a completely normal person to deal with. He is very nice, listens with interest and never seems like something special. If it weren’t for all the trappings with the state limousine and the security guards, you might think that someone from next door – friendly, open and approachable.
“If it weren’t for all the trappings with the state limousine and security guards, you’d think that’s someone from next door.”
How did it come about that your association was selected for the state visit? In the Ruhr area in particular, there are many clubs that have a biography similar to that of SV Türkiyemspor Bochum.
Sahingöz: Employees of the Federal President’s Office have probably researched on the Internet which clubs have done a lot for integration in recent years. Since Mr. Steinmeier was traveling in the Ruhr area as part of the German-Turkish agreement, they were looking for a club here in the district and came across us. When the request came by e-mail, a colleague from our board initially suggested another club, namely Firtinaspor Herne, because, unlike us, they have a complete youth department. But the office of the Federal President wanted to come to us, and in retrospect we are very happy about that!
Please tell us about the history of SV Türkiyemspor Bochum!
Sahingöz: We were founded in 1989 and were initially a purely Turkish association. Over the years, however, it became clear to us that we would rather open up to people of all nations, so that we always had German players or from other countries in our teams. And thanks to the good cooperation with our neighbor FC Bochum, there is already a lively exchange. Unfortunately, we only have two senior teams, but no youth, at FC Bochum it’s the other way around. That’s why we want to merge and hope that this will also give us a tailwind for our desire for an artificial turf pitch. Because so far we have ‘only’ one natural grass and one ash area here on Gahlenschen Straße.
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What has the association done for integration so that even the office of the Federal President became aware of SV Türkiyemspor Bochum?
Sahingöz: When refugees from all over the world came to Germany and to us in 2015, we first organized a soccer game for the newcomers together with the Bochum immigration authorities. This then turned into regular training times. At the beginning there were 20, 30 young men from Syria, Iraq, Guinea and other African countries. Since many only stayed in a city for a few months or maybe a year because they found shelter or a job elsewhere or, in the worst case, were deported, the number then decreased. Today we still have two players in the first team from the early days, one of them is Amadou Diallo, he was also at the meeting with Frank-Walter Steinmeier. We also helped him find an apprenticeship position, for example; he is currently completing an apprenticeship in the construction company of one of our board members.
How do you organize a state visit as a small association with a voluntary executive board?
Sahingöz: There is a lot to be done. We received a letter in advance about the safety precautions to be observed, how we should behave when the Federal President arrives and how many people are allowed to be there because of Corona. We were already at the site around 10 a.m., at 10:30 a.m. the police and state security came to search the facility for bombs. That took about an hour and a half. Bochum’s Lord Mayor Thomas Eiskirch came at half past one and a good hour later, with a little delay, the black limousine with Mr. Steinmeier and his wife drove up. For the moment, too, we had strict instructions, namely that we should approach the Federal President slowly when he gets out of the car and carefully hand the bouquet of flowers to his wife.
And then?
Sahingöz: After that it was really relaxed. We gave him a Türkiyemspor jersey with the number 60 on the back, which was supposed to symbolize the anniversary of the German-Turkish agreement. Then we showed him the club house with, among other things, the timeline of our club history and then a small panel discussion took place. There were a total of seven people, of us the deputy managing director Yasin Ali as well as Yasemin Pilinski and I were there, as well as the players Amadou Diallo and Erhan Düzgün as well as Ronja Inhoff from our neighboring club FC Bochum. We all said a little bit about what we are doing here. Mr. Steinmeier and Ms. Büdenbender were very interested and also asked questions. That was a nice afternoon.
How is your own immigration history going?
Sahingöz: My parents moved to Germany in 1973, a few years after this work agreement began. They initially lived in Ludwigshafen before moving to Bochum in 1975. My father Ahmed then started as a steel worker at ThyssenKrupp in a very classic way. I was born in 1979, I used to play football as a youth at FC Bochum and then later joined SV Türkiyemspor. Professionally, I work as a lawyer with my own law firm and in recent years, for example, I have also supported some of the refugees on legal issues.
