THE NAME Selcuk Tidem recently appeared on the score-sheet for Ireland’s under-16 soccer team in a friendly away to Belgium.
The son of an Irish mother and Turkish father living in Germany, Selcuk is on the books of Hamburg’s FC St Pauli and looks set to sign a professional contract in the near future.
Selcuk’s mother, Sharon Tidem (nee Trainor), was just seven years old when she left Belfast in 1978 with her family, who moved to Germany for work reasons.
Coming from a close-knit family who leaned heavily on each other in a strange, new country, it perhaps isn’t too surprising that Sharon’s Belfast accent is still remarkably intact.
Later she met Cavit, her Turkish-born husband, in Hamburg, and they have four children – soccer-mad Selcuk being the eldest.
Selcuk has been making progress as a striker at FC St Pauli, whose senior team play in Bundesliga Division 2 – and Sharon’s father, George, contacted Ireland’s under-16 manager Vincent Butler with a view to him scouting his grandson.
Butler gave the German-born striker two chances to impress against the Belgians in back-to-back friendless in late November, with Selcuk scoring the only Irish goal in the second fixture, which ended 1–1.
Sharon said that relatives in Northern Ireland had been informed of Selcuk’s Irish debut and were over the moon.
“We phoned them and told them to go on the internet, they are all delighted,” Sharon told Metro Eireann. “We are all proud. I hoped he would score to break it in for him – he is a quiet one.
“Selcuk was delighted. He scores a lot of goals in Germany, and this was a really good thing for him.”
She said he settled in well with the other boys, and because English is taught in German schools, could understand most of what was being said.
The youngster has now returned to his busy club schedule – training four times a week with FC St Pauli, and once a week with a Hamburg representative side made up of the best young players in the area.
However, Sharon says this focus on soccer doesn’t mean he can neglect his schoolwork. “School is the main thing, he has to be good at school,” she comments. “Here in Germany, the club checks out their schoolwork and their reports. St Pauli checks him out every year.”
As to the future, Sharon says the FAI will be back in contact in January. “We’ll have to wait and see what happens,” she explains.
With his multicultural background offering him various possible routes into international football – and having only been in Ireland once as a toddler – the young striker could be forgiven for divided loyalties. But according to his mother, Selcuk Tidem’s eyes are only on one country right now.
“At the moment, it’s Ireland,” she says.
