Gençlerbirliği terminates contract after 'realizing the player is Kurdish'

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Ankara football team Gençlerbirliği, playing in Türkiye's second league, gave the Sweden-born 24-year-old winger yesterday a contract for one and a half years. The attacker previously played at Dalkurd. The team plays at Sweden's third tier, the club was founded in 2004 by the Kurdish diaspora in Borlänge and Dalarna.

Speaking to bianet, a Gençlerbirliği Congress Member, who wanted to remain anonymous, said, "The only reason for the termination of the contract is because Rodin Cem Deprem is Kurdish and previously played for Dalkurd FF."

Dalkurd, founded in 2004 by the Kurdish diaspora in Sweden, plays at the country's third tier. According to Gençlerbirliği Congress Member, Ahmedspor was previously after the player. Ahmedspor is based in Dıyarbakir, a city in the southeast hosting a large Kurdish population.

"It was claimed that Dalkurd, playing in the Swedish third league, is a terrorist team.

"When the team did a little more investigation, they learned that Amedspor wanted the football player a month ago. When they added Dalkurd with Amedspor, all hell broke loose, and they terminated the contact," the congressmen confessed.

"After the reactions, they say that the contract was canceled due to economic conditions, but this was completely distorted," the member adds.

"we thought we should not play with the child's future"

Niyazi Akdaş, President of Gençlerbirliği refused the allegations and stated that the contract was terminated on mutual terms.

"After signing him as a striker, we thought we should not play with the child's future. It would not be a pity. We would have paid more, so we left by mutual agreement."

The football club on its social media account shared the following:
"As of yesterday, we have mutually canceled our agreement with Rodin Cem Deprem, which we agreed in principle and announced to the public as our new transfer. We could not reach an agreement on the duration of the contract." (WM/VK)