Tuğba Tekkal

Tuğba Tekkal — Biography

Tuğba Tekkal was born in Hanover on March 5, 1985. Her parents came to West Germany as migrant workers from south-eastern Turkey in the 1970s; the family is of Kurdish descent and belongs to the Yazidi community. She grew up with ten siblings in Linden, a working-class district of Hanover. She began playing early on local kick-about areas and, with her siblings' help, won her parents round to the sport. She is the sister of the journalist and author Düzen Tekkal.

From 2002 until the end of 2007 she played for TSV Havelse, then moved to Hamburger SV, making 21 Frauen-Bundesliga appearances and scoring three goals. She joined 1. FC Köln of the 2. Frauen-Bundesliga for 2009-10, left in 2011 intending to stop playing, but returned to the squad over the winter break. In 2014-15 Köln won the 2. Frauen-Bundesliga Süd undefeated and went up to the Frauen-Bundesliga. In 2017 she ended her career, citing an ankle injury and her growing commitment to human rights work.

In 2015 she co-founded the humanitarian organization Háwar.help with three of her sisters, to draw attention to the abuses suffered by Yazidis in Iraq and Syria; it runs the girls' football project "Scoring Girls". In 2019 she helped set up the GermanDream educational initiative. On December 1, 2024, she received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany; she has also received the Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Elisabeth Norgall Award, and was named to the Inspiring Fifty DACH list.