Kennedy playing for Ajax |
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Kennedy Bakircioglü | ||
| Date of birth | 2 November 1980 | ||
| Place of birth | Södertälje, Sweden | ||
| Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Racing Santander | ||
| Number | 16 | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1996–1998 | Assyriska | 34 | (10) |
| 1999–2003 | Hammarby | 127 | (38) |
| 2003–2005 | Iraklis | 24 | (4) |
| 2005–2007 | Twente | 66 | (23) |
| 2007–2010 | Ajax | 35 | (6) |
| 2010– | Racing Santander | 33 | (6) |
| National team | |||
| 1999–2001 | Sweden U21 | 14 | (1) |
| 2001–2008 | Sweden | 14 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 6 November 2011. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Kennedy Bakircioglü (Turkish: Bakırcıoğlu; born 2 November 1980 in Södertälje) is a Swedish footballer who plays for Racing de Santander in Spain, as a right midfielder.
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Bakircioglü's family is ethnic Assyrian/Syriac, followers of the Syriac Orthodox Church.[1] The family arrived in Sweden in 1972 from Midyat, Turkey.
Bakircioglü was named after United States president John F. Kennedy. His father, Benjamin, was one of the first to play for newly-founded Assyriska Föreningen, a club established by the Assyrian diaspora.[2]
Bakircioglü started off his professional career with Assyriska in 1996, playing three seasons with the team. During this spell, he had a trial with Manchester United, but did not do enough to secure a contract with the English club.[3]
In the summer of 1999, Bakircioglü joined Hammarby IF, and remained there for the next five years. In 2001, he scored eight goals in 26 games to lead the team to its first Allsvenskan championship and, four years later, was voted the club's fourth greatest player of all time in an online poll held on the club's website.
In January 2004, Bakircioglü moved abroad to play in Greece for Iraklis Thessaloniki FC, being sparingly used in his only full campaign in the Super League.
Bakircioglü moved teams and countries again in the 2005 off-season, signing with Dutch team FC Twente, and impressing manager Fred Rutten straight away to become a first-team regular. In 2006–07, he scored a career-best 15 goals in the Eredivisie as the Enschede outfit finished fourth and qualified to the UEFA Cup. His efforts did not go unnoticed and on 5 May 2007, newspaper De Telegraaf announced that the player had reached an agreement with fellow league side AFC Ajax.[4] He was officially signed ten days later, and scored on his official debut, a 8–1 away routing of De Graafschap.[5]
In August 2008, new Ajax manager Marco van Basten deemed Bakircioglü surplus to requirements, but the player decided to stay, being restricted to only 17 league games in two seasons combined. He did score, however, a crucial club for the Amsterdam team, in the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, in a 1–0 away win against ACF Fiorentina in the round of 32 (2–1 aggregate success).
Bakircioglü left Ajax in June 2010, signing for Spain's Racing de Santander early in the following month.[6][7] He started in all but two games he appeared in in his first season, as the Cantabrians retained their La Liga status; three of his league goals came in the last month of competition, against RCD Mallorca (2–0 home win),[8] Atlético Madrid (2–1, home)[9] and Athletic Bilbao (1–2 home loss).[10]
Bakircioglü gained 14 caps for Sweden, after appearing in as many games for the under-21s.
His debut came in 2001 whilst at Hammarby, but he never appeared in any major international tournament.
| Season | Club | Competition | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Assyriska | Division 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 1997 | Assyriska | Division 2 | 8 | 1 |
| 1998 | Assyriska | Division 1 Norra | 25 | 9 |
| 1999 | Hammarby | Allsvenskan | 25 | 2 |
| 2000 | Hammarby | Allsvenskan | 26 | 5 |
| 2001 | Hammarby | Allsvenskan | 26 | 8 |
| 2002 | Hammarby | Allsvenskan | 25 | 11 |
| 2003 | Hammarby | Allsvenskan | 25 | 12 |
| 2003–04 | Iraklis | Superleague Greece | 7 | 2 |
| 2004–05 | Iraklis | Superleague Greece | 17 | 2 |
| 2005–06 | Twente | Eredivisie | 32 | 8 |
| 2006–07 | Twente | Eredivisie | 34 | 15 |
| 2007–08 | Ajax | Eredivisie | 18 | 3 |
| 2008–09 | Ajax | Eredivisie | 8 | 1 |
| 2009–10 | Ajax | Eredivisie | 9 | 2 |
| 2010–11 | Racing Santander | La Liga | 32 | 6 |
| Totals | 289 | 82 | ||
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