Zelal Baturay

Zelal Baturay — Biography

Zelal Baturay is a Turkish women's footballer, born on July 7, 1996, in the Eğil district of Diyarbakır, who plays as a forward. She was discovered by coach Filiz Atay while playing football with boys in the streets of Diyarbakır, and after Atay persuaded her parents she obtained her license with her hometown club Diyarbakır Büyükşehir Belediyespor on April 7, 2011. Over three seasons there she scored 84 goals in 30 Second League matches, and in the 2012-13 season she was the league's Southeast Anatolia-Mediterranean Region top scorer with 33 goals in 10 games.

In 2014-15 she moved to Gaziantep's Gazikentspor, newly promoted to the First League, and after the club's relegation she joined third-tier Maraşgücü Spor in Kahramanmaraş for the 2015-16 season. She returned to her hometown club, by then renamed Amed S.K., in 2016-17, before transferring to Istanbul's Fatih Vatan Spor midway through the 2019-20 First League season. With Fatih Vatan Spor she finished runner-up in the 2020-21 play-off final against Beşiktaş and was named the season's top goalscorer. Internationally, she has played for Turkey's women's U-19 team since debuting against Azerbaijan on November 26, 2013, scoring in 2015 UEFA Women's U-19 Championship qualifying and totaling 11 caps and 4 goals for the side.