Six players from Turkey’s most successful handball team get national call-up

Turkish national handball team is starting to train for the 2016 European Handball Championship today. The team’s 24-player squad, who will face Norway, Croatia and Holland in the group qualifiers, includes 6 players from Beşiktaş Mogaz.  Yunus Özmusul (Goalkeeper), Uğur Çoban (Left Wing), Şenol Boyar - Volkan Çalışkan (Center), Ramazan Döne (Right Wing) and Tolga Özbahar (Pivot) will compete for the 5 starting positions out of 7. Beşiktaş Mogaz’s Ozan Arifoğlu will not be part of the national squad because of his recent injury.
 
Excluding two players, all candidates are currently playing in Turkish League. Can Çelebi (Nexe Nasice/Croatia) and Hakan Şahin (TIK-Handbold/Denmark) will be joining the national squad from abroad.
 
The Turkish national team, who has never qualified for the finals of any major international tournament, will try to make it a first by qualifying from the Group1.
 
 “When we had taken over the national team 4 years ago, we concentrated on young and promising players. They are improving everyday but still have not reached their full potential. These types of tournaments will give them an opportunity to build their experience. We hope they learn to implement the requirements of modern handball soon and become international stars. Unfortunately, even though they had made over 40 international appearances, we did not get the best out of our 1994/5 generation. Now, we focus on 1996/7 and 2000-born players and expect them to make up the time we lost. ” said the Head Coach Adnan Öztürk.
 
The national team will train at the THF Handball Hall in Ankara until Tuesday, October 28 and then will travel to Norway for their opening match on Wednesday. They host Croatia in Ankara on Sunday, November 2.