“To all the kids of my beautiful country: It’s time that I tell you my story. The whole story,” Arda Guler writes on The Player’s Tribune.
“I think a lot about our future as a footballing nation. I really hope that my journey will inspire some of you, and make you realise that anything is possible for boys and girls in Türkiye.
“Only a few years ago, I was one of you.
“It’s funny …… When I was 12 years old, I was obsessed with getting a PlayStation. You can’t even understand how bad I wanted one. Every day, I begged my dad. All I wanted was FIFA 17.
You see, I never really played video games much as a kid, because I was always out playing football in the street. But then one day, one of my friends got a PS4 with FIFA 17, and that was like the greatest day of our lives.
“When we saw the career mode with Alex Hunter — poof. Our brains exploded.
“Do you remember Alex Hunter? Some of you are probably too young. But FIFA 17 had this mode called The Journey, and you played as this random kid named Alex. You started out as a nobody and tried to get signed by the big clubs. If you “made it,” they would show you going out of the tunnel next to stars like Cristiano Ronaldo.
“It was more than a game for us. It was our actual dream, on the TV screen. We were so addicted. Every time I came home from my friends’ house, I begged my dad for a PS4.
“I’ll be so good! I’ll study so hard!”
“But you know Turkish parents. For a long time my dad just said, “Wait a little, I gotta fix a few things …..”
“I wasn’t sure what he meant, but one day when I came home from school, there was a package on the kitchen table. It was a PlayStation shaped box.
“I went crazy.
“I looked at him like, “Really?!”
“He said, “Really.”
“When I switched it on, there were lots of games on the PlayStation already. No disc required. It seemed almost too good to be true. I was like, Wait, I had to beg Dad for one game, and now he’s giving me 20?
“I asked him, “Hey Dad, did you win the Lottery?”
“He was like, “Actually …… I got a deal.”
“I was like, “You mean at the store?”
“He was like, “No, no, at the market …….”
“Then I found out that my FIFA had no Journey mode. I couldn’t find Alex Hunter. Some of the names were weird. When I wanted to be Cristiano Ronaldo, I had to select this club called “MD White.”
“I went back to my dad. “Are you sure you got the right FIFA? Something is weird.”
“He said, “Yeah, I’m sure. Have you tried turning it on and off?”
“Dad ……………”
“You know what? Maybe it’s the Internet.”
“I played like this for weeks. I had never tried any other football game except FIFA, so I honestly thought mine was just a different version. But then one day my friends came over to play, and they were like, “Arda …….. what is this?”
“I said, “What do you mean? It’s FIFA.”
“I said, “No, come on guys, this is the football game.”
“They said, “Bro, where is Fenerbahçe? What are all these weird names? Your dad got scammed.”
“They were all cracking up. I was trying to laugh along with them, but I was actually so embarrassed.
“But I didn’t care that I had the fake FIFA. I loved it anyway. I don’t need a real pitch or a real goal or a new PlayStation. Even if I have rocks for goalposts, I am happy.