Benjamin Kibebe

Benjamin Kibebe (born August 13, 1981[2]) is a Swedish professional former footballer who played as a defender. He won one cap for the Sweden national team in 2001.

Benjamin Kibebe
Personal information
Date of birth (1981-08-13) August 13, 1981
Place of birth Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
Rågsveds IF
IF Brommapojkarna
Hammarby IF
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1999–2004 AIK 80 (2)
2005–2006 Tromsø 46 (4)
2007–2008 Aalesunds FK 35 (2)
2008–2010 FC Nordsjælland[1] 56 (1)
2010–2012 FC Luzern 12 (1)
2012–2013 FC Midtjylland 9 (0)
Total 238 (10)
International career
1997–1998 Sweden U17 9 (0)
2000–2002 Sweden U21 6 (0)
2001 Sweden 1 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 26 March 2013

Career

Early career

Kibebe was born in Addis Ababa and moved to Sweden as a child. He began his career with local side Hammarby IF but in 1999 moved to their bitter rivals AIK as a senior played. He has said that the only reason he crossed the divide is that AIK offered him a professional contract and Hammarby didn't. During his time at AIK he was capped once for Sweden.

Norway

He spent 5 seasons with AIK and in 2005 moved to Norway to play in the Tippeligaen for Tromsø IL, the northernmost top-level football club in the world. Due to this Kibebe said that the team had to travel to most matches via plane. Kibebe had a successful year living in Tromsø as he played in the UEFA Cup. The club beat Danish club Esbjerg fB in the qualifying round then Turkish club Galatasaray in the First round to qualified to the group stages. The team were drawn in Group E alongside AS Roma, RC Strasbourg, FC Basel and Red Star Belgrade.

At the end of the 2006 season Kibebe left Tromsø IL for Aalesunds FK who had just been promoted from the 1. divisjon at the end of the 2006 season after finishing as runners up.

Denmark

After a successful time at Aalesund he was sold to Danish team FC Nordsjælland. In Denmark he quickly made a good name for himself where he was a strong contributor to helping the team win the Danish Cup 2010 for the first time in the club's history. Kibebe is noted for 21 games in the UEFA cup and scored the first goal of the FC Nordsjælland's UEFA Cup contest against the Scottish club Queen of the South.[3]

Switzerland

On 5 May 2010, the day after FC Nordsjælland's Danish Cup victory he was bought by the Swiss Club FC Luzern. Kibebe signed a three-year contract.[4]

International career

Kibebe has played one match for the Sweden national team in 2001, and represented the Sweden U17 and U21 teams between 1997 and 2002.[5][6]

References
  1. Benjamin Kibebe at DR (in Danish) (archived)
  2. Profile at Playerhistory.com
  3. "Club History" on the official Queen of the South website Archived 2009-09-13 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "FC Luzern verpflichtet schwedischen Innenverteidiger". Archived from the original on 2010-05-24. Retrieved 2010-05-05.
  5. Benjamin Kibebe at National-Football-Teams.com
  6. "Benjamin Kibebe - Spelarstatistik - Svensk fotboll". www.svenskfotboll.se. (in Swedish). Retrieved 2022-11-28.
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