Şeyma Erenli

Şeyma Erenli — Biography

Şeyma Erenli (full name Şeyma Erenli Kraemer) is a midfielder born in Melbourne to a Turkish immigrant family, who has played for both the Turkey women's national team and the Australia women's national futsal team. Her career took her between Australia, the United States and Turkey.

She began playing at six with Endeavour United; her father, an amateur footballer in Turkey who kept playing in Australia for the Turkish club Gençlik Gücü, was her inspiration. In her hometown she spent five seasons at Ashburton Women's Soccer Club, captaining the side in three of them, in the Victorian Women's Premier League. In 2008 she went to the United States to study physical education teaching at Indiana State University and played for the Indiana State Sycamores in the top level of university football until 2011, making 53 appearances over three seasons. After graduating in December 2011 and returning to Australia, she rejoined Ashburton and later moved to Box Hill United in Melbourne. She is known for never missing a penalty, a skill she says she learned from her father.

She made her debut for Turkey on July 29, 2010, in a 2011 World Cup qualifier against England in Walsall, played in the Euro 2013 qualifiers against Romania and Switzerland, and earned five caps in all. In a 2019 interview with the Turkish Football Federation she called football her greatest passion.