{"id":87349,"date":"2026-06-26T13:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T17:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/world-cup-star-deniz-undav-brings-pride-to-yazidi-and-kurdish-communities\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T13:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T17:46:17","slug":"world-cup-star-deniz-undav-brings-pride-to-yazidi-and-kurdish-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/world-cup-star-deniz-undav-brings-pride-to-yazidi-and-kurdish-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup Star Deniz Undav Brings Pride to Yazidi and Kurdish Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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KHIRBET AL-GHAZAL, Syria \u2014 One of the biggest surprises at this year’s World Cup is Deniz Undav, a striker playing for Germany who carries with him the pride of two communities that have no national team of their own. The 29-year-old, who identifies as a Kurdish Yazidi and is the son of Yazidi refugees, has become a symbol of hope for people who have endured generations of hardship and violence.<\/p>

Coming off the bench as a substitute, Undav has scored three goals and set up two more during the tournament, placing him in elite company on the scoring charts alongside global superstars like Argentina’s Lionel Messi, France’s Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, and Brazil’s Vinicius Jr.<\/p>

At a news conference Wednesday, Undav was asked about the impact of his performance on the Yazidi community. He said he hopes his play inspires fans everywhere, and particularly those within his own heritage community.<\/p>

“I always get the news from my parents how they view me, how they see me and it’s making me proud, you know, that we finally have somebody,” he said.<\/p>

In the village of Khirbet al-Ghazal in northeastern Syria, a small group of Yazidis gathered Thursday evening at the home of community leader Ismail Dalaf to watch Germany face Ecuador. Many of the people there share family ties with Undav’s mother, who originally came from a nearby village that has since been abandoned \u2014 its residents either leaving for economic reasons or fleeing during Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011.<\/p>

Dalaf described Undav’s World Cup run as something that has made him “a symbol that shows Yazidis can reach a higher position and be seen with respect.”<\/p>

“When people see a Yazidi entering the field, scoring goals and changing the result of matches, it changes public perception,” Dalaf said. “It tells the world that Yazidis have a role in the world.”<\/p>

The Kurdish people are among the world’s largest stateless ethnic groups, with approximately 30 million living as minorities across Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking religious minority found primarily in Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. According to Irfan Ortac, chair of the Central Council of Yazidis in Germany, around 235,000 Yazidis now live in Germany \u2014 many of whom arrived following a brutal 2014 attack in Iraq’s Sinjar region, in which thousands of Yazidis were killed or taken captive by Islamic State militants who labeled them heretics.<\/p>

“Until now, we have mostly been known as victims of violence,” Ortac said. “Whenever we spoke about Yazidis, we always had to talk about genocide, discrimination, and displacement. It makes us very proud and happy to be able to talk about something positive.”<\/p>

Iraq is home to the world’s largest concentration of Yazidis and the site of their most sacred place of worship, the Lalish temple. There, too, Undav’s accomplishments have drawn celebration.<\/p>

“It makes me very happy to see a Yazidi bringing our name to the World Cup and playing in front of the whole world,” said Luqman Sleiman, a spokesperson for the temple.<\/p>

Diyar Bakir, a 29-year-old Yazidi from Sinjar, said he dreams of one day traveling to Germany to watch Undav play in person. He reflected on the journey Undav’s family has taken.<\/p>

His family “came from a place where his ethnicity and religion were not appreciated, yet he is now recognized and valued by a great team like Germany,” Bakir said. “He emerged from the womb of suffering, and we wish him every success.”<\/p>

Undav’s path has not been without difficulty. He has faced abuse tied to his heritage, both from spectators in the stands and on social media. When his club team Stuttgart traveled to Turkey to play Fenerbahce last year, German media outlets reported offensive chants directed at him. Two Kurdish anti-discrimination organizations characterized the social media attacks against him as part of a broader pattern of “racist and ethnically motivated hostility.”<\/p>

His choice to represent Germany rather than Turkey \u2014 a decision other German-born players with similar eligibility have made differently \u2014 also drew backlash from some Turkish fans online. Despite that, his popularity has grown significantly during the tournament.<\/p>

D\u00fczen Tekkal, a documentary filmmaker and author of Kurdish Yazidi heritage from northwestern Germany \u2014 the same region where Undav grew up \u2014 is the co-founder of Scoring Girls(asterisk), a nonprofit that provides free soccer instruction to girls from a variety of backgrounds. She spoke about what she sees as a cultural moment.<\/p>

“There definitely is a Deniz Undav effect and it’s very important,” she said, noting that children can now celebrate their heritage and feel a sense of belonging in Germany at a time when immigration is frequently framed as a political issue.<\/p>

“It is no coincidence that he plays with this lightness and freedom,” Tekkal added. “People are asking how come he’s so good under pressure or he can cope with so much pressure? Because he doesn’t know it any other way. That is the DNA, that is the resilience. \u2026 That’s how he scores these goals because what is that pressure compared to being Kurdish or Yazidi?”<\/p>

After scoring against Curacao, Undav celebrated with a traditional Yazidi-inspired dance, hands clasped behind his back. He was joined in the celebration by Antonio R\u00fcdiger, a Black German soccer star who has himself endured racist and anti-Muslim abuse throughout his career. Tekkal called the moment “one of the highlights, no matter how this World Cup goes from here.”<\/p>

“Dancing is a form of expressing resistance for us,” Tekkal said. “We dance on the graves of our dead. Our mantra is that resistance is life. He’s dancing there for his forefathers who were oppressed.”<\/p>

Mahmoud Kanabi, a Kurd from Irbil who relocated to Berlin in 2020 and works at a Kurdish restaurant, said Undav’s presence in the tournament inspired him to buy a Germany jersey \u2014 something he would not have considered otherwise.<\/p>

“Unfortunately, for us Kurds, we don’t have a team because we don’t have a country,” he said. “Now, when a Kurdish player is in a team, we have to be fans of it. It doesn’t matter what team it is.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

German striker Deniz Undav has become one of the breakout performers at this World Cup, and his Yazidi and Kurdish heritage is making his success especially meaningful to communities that have long faced persecution. After entering matches as a substitute, the 29-year-old has scored three goals and assisted on two others. His achievements are being celebrated by Yazidis and Kurds around the world who rarely have reason to celebrate on the global sports stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":87348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[836],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/news-1782495976755.jpg?fit=1000%2C659&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbtNqq-mIR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":76613,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/yazidi-woman-testifies-about-enslavement-by-australian-family-in-syria\/","url_meta":{"origin":87349,"position":0},"title":"Yazidi Woman Testifies About Enslavement by Australian Family in Syria","author":"Admin","date":"June 4, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"An Australian woman faces slavery charges after a Yazidi witness told a Melbourne court she was purchased, raped and beaten while enslaved by the woman's family in Syria. 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