Born in France

Efe Evan Postel was born on 3 June 2006 in Nice, France, while his parents were living in nearby Monaco. Monaco was home, but when the time came, they crossed the border deliberately — to the Lenval Children's Hospital in Nice, one of France's most respected paediatric hospitals. It was a small decision made with the whole weight of love behind it: a desire to give their son the very best possible start in life.

That decision carried a much deeper meaning than anyone outside the family could see.

Just over a year before Efe's birth, his parents had lived through the greatest heartbreak parents can endure. His older sister, Lara, passed away in her mother's womb just days before what was expected to be a full-term birth. The loss left a wound that would never completely heal, and it forever changed the two people who would one day become Efe's mother and father.

In the middle of that grief, they held on to one conviction: that God has a purpose for every life, even when that purpose is beyond our understanding. Lara will always be part of their family and forever remain in their hearts. Her life, though far too brief, shaped her parents profoundly — teaching them the value of faith, of gratitude, and of the preciousness of every single moment they would ever be given.

When Efe was born on that June day in 2006, his parents did not see his arrival as the end of one story. They saw it as the beginning of another — one that had always been destined to unfold. They believed his life had been written long before they could ever understand it. From his very first breath, they felt they had been entrusted with an extraordinary blessing, and with a child who carried a unique path to follow.

That belief has stayed with them, unshaken, for two decades. Every time a challenge has appeared in Efe's life, his family has chosen to read it not as a sign that something had gone wrong, but as a moment inside a much larger journey — one whose meaning often becomes clear only with time. Faith, in their home, has never been about certainty. It has been about trust: trust that God's timing is perfect, and that every setback can quietly become the preparation for something greater.

Twenty years later, that same philosophy would be tested again. In the summer of 2026, after an outstanding preparation camp, Efe earned his place on Turkey's U20 National Team, only to be kept out of the FIBA U20 European Championship by administrative circumstances entirely beyond his control. His family did not flinch. They had seen this kind of disappointment before, and they had learned, from a much earlier grief, that closed doors are often only pauses inside a longer story.

There is another quiet beauty in his birthplace.

The city where he was born is called Nice.

In English, the word itself perfectly reflects the person Efe has become. Those who know him — coaches, teammates, teachers, opponents — consistently describe him with the same handful of words: kind, respectful, intelligent, humble, loyal, compassionate. Long before anyone admired the basketball player, they admired the human being.

Only a few weeks after his birth, the family left for the summer and set out along Turkey's Mediterranean coastline on a traditional Blue Cruise — a Mavi Yolculuk. Long days on the water. Pine trees leaning over hidden bays. Meals shared on deck. A baby held in the arms of grandparents who had waited a very long time to hold him.

Surrounded by nature, by the sea and by family, his parents rediscovered everything they loved about Turkey. That journey became another turning point. Efe's mother wished to be closer to her own parents, and together they decided to move permanently to Istanbul.

Looking back today, what seemed at the time like a simple family decision would ultimately become one of the defining moments of Efe's entire life.

During the pregnancy, Efe's parents also happened to meet one of Turkey's legendary basketball players. Whether it was destiny, or coincidence, or simply a wonderful family story, they sometimes smile now at the thought that perhaps those first conversations about basketball somehow reached Efe before he had even entered the world.

No one imagined then how important basketball would eventually become.

Once settled in Istanbul, Efe grew up in a genuinely multicultural environment. Born in France, raised in Turkey, carrying both Turkish and Dutch roots, he naturally developed a curiosity for different cultures, different languages and different people. Those qualities would later help him adapt — effortlessly, and without losing himself — to every country and every team on his basketball journey.

Efe's older brother, Vangelis, ten years his senior, had started playing basketball. As a very young child, Efe would sit quietly on the sideline, watching his brother train and play. Coaches often remarked that Vangelis had great natural ability, and that they wished he had started even earlier.

What no one fully noticed, in those long afternoons in the gym, was the small boy in the corner absorbing every movement — every dribble, every cut, every reaction of a coach to a mistake.

That little boy was Efe.

Soon he would pick up a basketball himself. What began as admiration for an older brother would become the passion that shaped his entire life.