Kennedy Bakircioglü

Infobox Football biography
playername = Kennedy Bakircioglü


fullname = Kennedy Bakircioglü
height = height|m=1.81
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1980|11|2
cityofbirth = Södertälje
countryofbirth = Sweden
position = Midfielder
currentclub = AFC Ajax
clubnumber = 7
years = 1996-1998
1999-2003
2003-2005
2005-2007
2007-
clubs = Assyriska Föreningen
Hammarby IF
Iraklis
FC Twente
AFC Ajax
caps(goals) = 034 0(10)
127 0(38)
024 00(4)
066 0(23)
019 00(3)
nationalyears = 1999-2001
2001-
nationalteam = Sweden U21
Sweden
nationalcaps(goals) = 014 00(1)
014 00(0)
pcupdate = 12:00, 19 August 2007 (UTC)
ntupdate = 12:00, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Kennedy Bakircioglü (born November 2, 1980 in Södertälje, Sweden) is a Swedish football player of Assyrian origin. [ [http://www.fenerbahce.com/haberler/7696.php Assyrian-Swedish Kennedy for Fenerbahçe?] ] [Dagblad De Pers, 09-03-2007 [http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u281/AssyriskaFF/Kennedy.jpg] ] He currently plays for Ajax in the Dutch Eredivisie. He has also played for the Sweden national football team.

Biography

Bakircioglü's family arrived in Sweden in 1972 from Midyat, Turkey. His father, Bünyamin (Benjamin) Bakircioglü, was one of the first to play for the new club Assyriska Föreningen, a club established by the Assyrian diaspora. He started off his professional career with Assyriska in 1996 and stayed at the club until 1999. In 1998-99, Bakircioglü had a trial with Manchester United, but did not do enough to secure a contract with the English club. In the summer of 1999, he joined Hammarby IF, and remained there for the next five years, during which time he led the team to its first championship in 2001. In his time at Hammarby, Bakircioglü was well known to many players of the computer game Championship Manager. Bakircioglü had the reputation of a legend in the game. [ [http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=169094&page=2 Discussion on Championship Manager greats, Kennedy comes up numerous times] ] In 2005, he was elected Hammarby's fourth greatest player of all time in an online poll held on the club's website.

In 2003, Bakircioglü moved abroad to play in Greece for Iraklis. As he had played the 2003 season in Sweden, he joined his new team half-way through their season and only managed seven league appearances. In his second and last season at the club, he was unable to hold down a first team place and was soon on the move again. He joined the Dutch team FC Twente prior to the start of the 2005-06 season and impressed his manager Fred Rutten straight away to become a first team regular. In fact, in his two seasons at the club he only missed two league appearances and managed to score 23 goals. His efforts didn't go unnoticed and on 5 May 2007, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf announced that Bakircioglü would be playing for Ajax in the 2007-08 season. [De Telegraaf, 05-05-2007 [http://www.telesport.nl/voetbal/1572012/Bakircioglu_kiest_Ajax.html] ] He was officially signed by Ajax ten days later on 15 May 2007. At Ajax, he immediately secured his second career trophy when they beat PSV Eindhoven 1-0 in the Johan Cruijff-schaal. In his first Eredivisie match for Ajax, he scored one goal in the 8-1 drubbing of De Graafschap.

On the 4 August, Van Basten told Ajax official webpage that Kennedy was no longer needed in the club and the search for a new club should begin right away.

tatistics

ee also

* Assyrians and Syriacs in Sweden

References

* [http://www.vi.nl Voetbal International website and 2007/2008 presentation magazine]

External links

* [http://www.vi.nl/Spelers/Speler/KennedyBakircioglu.htm Voetbal International profile]