Football: First timers highlight Turkey's draft squad

By Satuk Bugra Kutlugun

ANKARA

The Turkish Football Federation has announced its 26-member draft squad ahead of exhibition matches against Romania and Albania.

The squad, approved by manager Mircea Lucescu, included some first-timers such as defender Erol Erdal Alkan, who plays for Dordrecht in Dutch second league Eerste Divisie, Istanbulspor goalkeeper Okan Kocuk from Turkish second league and Atilla Turan, full-back from Super Lig's Kayserispor.

Lucescu also called up winger Kenan Karaman from Hannover 96, while listing out experienced names like Burak Yilmaz, Arda Turan, Caner Erkin and Mehmet Topal.

Turkey will play against Romania on Nov. 9 in an away match, the team will come back to Turkey to face Albania in Antalya on Nov. 13.

Here is the full announced squad:

Harun Tekin (Bursaspor), Okan Kocuk (Istanbulspor), Volkan Babacan (Medipol Basaksehir), Kaan Ayhan (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Ozan Tufan, Ismail Koybasi (Fenerbahce), Caglar Soyuncu (Freiburg), Erol Erdal Alkan (Dordrecht), Omer Toprak (Borussia Dortmund), Serdar Aziz, Selçuk Inan, Tolga Cigerci (Galatasaray), Ugur Demirok, Yusuf Yazici, Okay Yokuslu (Trabzonspor), Atilla Turan, Deniz Turuc (Kayserispor), Cengiz Under (Roma), Emre Mor (Celta Vigo), Oguzhan Ozyakup, Cenk Tosun (Besiktas), Emre Akbaba (Aytemiz Alanyaspor), Hakan Calhanoglu (Milan), Yunus Malli (Wolfsburg), Kenan Karaman (Hannover 96), Enes Unal (Levante).