Paşa's promise to adopted Turkish home

Turkish switch
Take the opening day game between Portugal and Turkey. On the Portuguese side, the naturalised Deco. And for Turkey, Mehmet – formerly Marco – Aurélio. The latter, a Rio de Janeiro-born 30-year-old, moved to Trabzonspor from Olaria AC in 2001 and five years later acquired Turkish citizenship. He made his international debut against Luxembourg that August. The first player of Brazilian origin to represent Turkey, Aurélio is now among the squad's mainstays with 20 caps, and is set to earn one more in their vital Group A encounter with Switzerland in Basel tonight. "Brazil is a very big country and you can find so many Brazilian footballers everywhere in the world," Aurélio told euro2008.com. "These players realise that there is no chance to play for their country. So that is why they prefer to play for another country."

Honour
Some 'foreign' players being called to another national team have been met with scepticism but that was not the case for Aurélio. "I was amazed how the Turkish people welcomed me – on and off the pitch – after that decision," the Fenerbahçe SK midfielder said. "When a possibility came up for me to play for the national team, I was very honoured. I am extremely proud to be the first." Indeed, Aurélio has a fair bit to be proud of. A product of the CR Flamengo academy, he has three Turkish titles and a UEFA Champions League quarter-final under his belt after five Fenerbahçe campaigns, and his role as midfield anchor has earned him the nickname 'Paşa' – translated as general or admiral. "In a Fenerbahçe training session, somebody called me Paşa," Aurélio said. "My friends told me there is a famous figure called Marco Paşa in Turkish folklore. I like it."

Vital fixture
If he can inspire Turkey to victory this evening and revive their hopes after the 2-0 loss to Portugal, Aurélio could become something of a folk hero in his own right. "This is a game that means something to the whole country," he said. "I will give everything to win. We want to win and try to qualify for the quarter-finals in the last game against Czech Republic. Expectations were very high before the Portugal game. But Portugal did very well and created most of the chances. No question about it, Portugal were deserved winners. [Switzerland will] show their physical strength in this game and we have played against that before. They have a very European style. But they have lost their main player, Alexander Frei, and will be worried about that. We are very confident that we can beat Switzerland."