İlayda Civelek

İlayda Civelek — Biography

İlayda Civelek was born on 6 July 1998 in Amasya; her family is originally from Elazığ. She received her licence from Amasya Eğitimspor on 14 October 2011 and played five seasons there. In the 2015-16 Women's Second League she scored 19 goals and shared the top-scorer title with Beşiktaş's Başak Gündoğdu. With her school team from Amasya Girls' Sports High School at the 2015 ISF World Tournament in Guatemala, she scored four goals in one game, a record.

Her club path went on with Beşiktaş, where the team finished runners-up in 2016-17. In October 2017 she moved to Ataşehir Belediyespor and the next season to Kireçburnu SK, returning to Ataşehir after the first half of 2018-19. She joined ALG Spor in October 2020, scored on her Women's Champions League debut in qualifying against Vllaznia Shkodër, and won the 2021-22 Super League title. She transferred to Galatasaray in August 2022, to Fenerbahçe on 21 July 2023 and back to Beşiktaş on 2 July 2024. She is described as the first and only Turkish woman to have played for Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray, and she was named the Super League's best defender for 2023-24.

Nationally she progressed through the U-15, U-17 (23 caps, four goals) and U-19 sides, was admitted to the senior team in 2020, and made her debut against Slovenia in Euro 2022 qualifying on 18 September 2020. She plays as a left-back.