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For Ozzy Keles, soccer was never just a game. Better known as “football” around the world, the sport shaped much of his early life and would eventually define his academic career.
Hailing from the Black Sea shore region in Turkey, Keles grew up immersed in a culture where soccer was more than a pastime – it was a way of life. For a country rich in regional diversity, soccer stood out as a shared language that connected people across communities. Keles played all throughout his youth and early adulthood, a passion that would eventually lead him to explore the sport beyond the pitch.
“Historically, soccer became the people’s game through its deep connection with working-class communities, and from there it expanded into a global sport,” he said, emphasizing the close relationship with social and cultural identity. “For me, soccer is never just about what happens on the pitch. It is also about the ideas, communities, and struggles behind the game.”
That growing interest in what drives sport – and how its influence extends beyond the game itself – led Keles to pursue a double major in physical education and sport management during his undergraduate studies in İzmir, Turkey.
There, exposure to the region’s rich ancient sporting heritage deepened his interest in the historical and cultural significance of sport and helped him see it as part of a much larger social story.
Sport, politics, national identity
By the time he graduated in the summer of 2015, he received approval to study in Canada. Keles completed a project management program at George Brown College in Toronto while working as a fitness instructor and coaching for a local soccer club.
But it was his growing interest in sport history that ultimately led him to pursue a master’s in socio-cultural studies at Western. His master’s dissertation examined the intersection of sport, politics and national identity through the life of the Olympic weightlifting legend, Naim “the Pocket Hercules” Süleymanoğlu.
Now pursuing his PhD in kinesiology, Keles studies Turkish soccer within a broader international context, focusing on how the sport reflects questions of identity, belonging and power. His current research centers on Trabzonspor FC, the Black Sea club that challenged the long-standing dominance of Istanbul’s major teams – Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe, and Beşiktaş – and became a symbol of regional pride.
Drawing on archival research in Turkey and work at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, along with ongoing efforts to access Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) records, Keles examines how locally rooted clubs can challenge established football hierarchies and reshape national sporting narratives. His work reveals the deeper connections between sport, community, memory and social change.
Finding inspiration at Western
Keles describes his research supervisor, kinesiology professor emeritus Bob Barney, as his main inspiration.
(L to R) Western kinesiology professor emeritus Bob Barney and PhD candidate Ozzy Keles. (Submitted)
“I played soccer for over 15 years at the competitive level, but I never had a role model until I met Dr. Barney,” Keles said.
Barney is the founder of Western’s International Centre for Olympic Studies (ICOS) in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Beyond being a pioneer in sport history academia, Keles says Barney is an excellent storyteller, with a scarily sharp memory to boot. He recalled one moment when Barney described a moment from decades ago in striking detail.
“He recalls remarkable details. For example, saying ‘When I visited Turkey to see historical sites in the mid-1980s, during the first week of April, I was having breakfast,’” Keles said with a laugh. “His memory is extraordinary. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning.”
Barney’s supervision has helped Keles on his path to completing his doctorate – now just weeks away from defending his PhD.
Keles also emphasized the importance of personal support throughout his academic journey. He said the constant encouragement of PhD candidate Riley Nowokowski and Jim McCormick, who recently defended his PhD at 81, helped him continue pushing forward with his research over the years. “I am deeply grateful for their support,” he said.
Keles’s research has already earned international recognition, allowing him to present in Italy and Romania.
He’s received the Early Career Scholar Essay Award from the European Committee for Sports History – an honour recognizing outstanding emerging scholarship – for his research on the Pocket Hercules and was awarded the Gigliola Gori Essay Award from the International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport for his research on Turkish soccer.
Keles said those experiences were personally and professionally enriching, providing new ideas and networks to further his research.
“At Western, I have been able to learn from scholars and graduate students who bring different backgrounds, disciplines and perspectives to the same intellectual space. That environment, combined with local and international conferences and research trips, has changed the way I think about sport history,” Keles said.
“Meeting scholars, exchanging ideas and taking part in intellectual debates have helped me approach my work in a broader and more critical way. For me, that is the real value of academia: it constantly opens new questions, challenges what you think you know and keeps you intellectually hungry.”
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