Robert Alexander Robert Michel Melki ( ar, روبير الكساندر روبير ميشيل ملكي, ; born 14 November 1992), known as Alexander Michel Melki,) in Arabic. is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a defender for Swedish club

AFC Eskilstuna Athletic Football Club Eskilstuna, also known as AFC Eskilstuna or simply AFC, is a Swedish football club located in Eskilstuna. The club has previously been known under the names FC Café Opera and Väsby United before switching ownership and t ...

and the Lebanon national team. A centre-back at the club level, Michel Melki is mainly deployed as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

at the international level. Swedish by birth, Michel Melki represented them at youth level before also acquiring Lebanese nationality through his grandfather on his father's side. He decided to switch allegiance to Lebanon and made his senior international debut in 2018. After following his father's tracks playing at Syrianska for six years, Michel Melki moved to

in 2017, helping them gain promotion back to the Allsvenskan the following season. In 2019 he moved to Qatar, joining

Al-Khor Al Khor ( ar, الخور; also spelled ''Al Khawr''), officially Al Khor and Al Thakhira, is a municipality in coastal northeastern Qatar. Al Khor City, the municipal seat, is located in the northeast coast of Qatar, around from the capital, ...

before moving to Al-Shahania in 2021. Born in Sweden, Michel Melki represented his native country at youth levels before switching allegiance to Lebanon in 2018. He took part in the

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup was the 17th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in the United Arab Emirates from 5 January to 1 F ...

, Lebanon's first participation in 19 years.

Early life

Michel Melki was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and a

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

father, Robert Michel, who used to play for Syrianska when the team was still in the lower divisions of Swedish football. He has a younger brother, Felix, who also plays football. In an interview with

TRT World TRT World is a Turkish public broadcaster international news channel which broadcasts in English 24 hours a day, operated by the TRT and based in Taksim Square, Istıklal Avenue, Beyoğlu, Istanbul. It provides worldwide news and current affai ...

, his brother Felix stated that their grandfather was Lebanese, and that two of their father's sisters were born in Lebanon.

Club career

Syrianska

Alexander Michel started his career at Syrianska. His personal debut in the first team and in the Allsvenskan took place on 20 June 2011 at the age of 18, with his team being defeated 3–0 against

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, ''Kungliga Djurgården'' (), is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum ...

. During that

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

he made a total of 10 league appearances. In

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

he found further space, with 23 appearances of which 18 as a starter. Exactly two years after his debut in the Swedish championship, on 20 June 2013 Michel seriously damaged the

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's la ...

of his left knee during a home match against

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Association ...

. The injury forced him to stay out of action for a year, with his next official match being played on 25 June 2014 in the Superettan. Having recovered from the injury, in July 2015 Michel broke the same cruciate ligament damaged two years earlier forcing him to finish the season in advance. His last year at Syrianska was in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

, with 25 league appearances in the league.

AFC Eskilstuna

After the expiration of his contract with Syrianska, Michel carried out trials with Hammarby and Djurgården in January 2017. A few weeks later, he signed a two-year contract with Allsveskan side

. In his first season in the club, Alexander played 23 games in the Allsvenskan coming last in the league. The following season, relegated to the Superettan, he played 29 league games as well as both play-off games to promote his team back to the first division.

Al-Khor

On 23 January 2019, during the winter transfer window, Alkass Sports Channels officially announced the signing of Michel Melki to Qatar Stars League side

until the end of the season. In his first season, in 2018–19, Michel Melki played seven league games, and helped his side avoid relegation by finishing 10th in the league. During the 2019–20 season, Michel Melki played 20 of the 22 regular season games as a starter, missing two games due to injury, and provided two assists. As Al-Khor finished in 11th place, they played the relegation play-off game against

Qatari Second Division The Qatari Second Division ( ar, دوري الدرجة الثانية القطري), QSD or Second Division League, also was known as Qatargas League due to sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of football league competition in Qatar. Contested ...

side Al-Markhiya. They won the encounter 2–0

after extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

, and avoided relegation once again. Michel Melki finished runner-up with Al-Khor in the 2020–21 Qatar Stars Cup, featuring in the final against eventual winners

Al-Rayyan Al Rayyan (; also spelled as ''Ar Rayyan'') is the third-largest municipality in the state of Qatar. Its primary settlement is the city of the same name, which occupies the entire eastern section and largely surrounds Metropolitan Doha and funct ...

. After playing seven games during the season, his contract was terminated on 20 February 2021.

Al-Shahania

Michel Melki joined

side Al-Shahania, making his debut in the 2020–21 season on 27 February 2021, in a 2–0 win against Muaither. After playing five games in the regular season, helping his side finish in second place, Michel Melki played against his former side Al-Khor in the

promotion play-offs Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

, losing 3–1 and remaining in the Second Division. He scored his only goal for Al-Shahania on 26 February 2022, during the 2021–22 season, in a 5–1 league win against Al-Waab.

Return to AFC Eskilstuna

On 8 August 2022, Michel Melki returned to his former club in Sweden

, reuniting with his brother Felix; he signed a contract until the end of the

2022 Superettan The 2022 Superettan is part of the 2022 Swedish football season, and the 22nd season of Superettan, Sweden's second-tier football division in its current format. A total of 16 teams contest the league. Teams A total of 16 teams contest the leagu ...

season.

International career

Lebanon v North Korea, 19 November 2019 03

Michel Melki represented Sweden internationally at under-19 and under-21 level. In 2018, Michel Melki acquired a

Lebanese passport The passport of the Republic of Lebanon ( ar, جواز سفر الجمهورية اللبنانية) (french: Passeport de la République libanaise) is a passport issued to the citizens of the Republic of Lebanon to enable them to travel outsid ...

due to his origins, making him eligible for the Lebanon national team. He made his international debut for Lebanon on 15 November 2018, playing the whole 90 minutes in a goalless draw against

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

. Michel Melki was called up for the

, alongside his brother Alexander, one month later. On his 27th birthday, on 14 November 2019, Michel Melki played the whole 90 minutes in a 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier match against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. Lebanon held on to a 0–0 draw, with Michel Melki neutralizing

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

forward

Son Heung-min Son Heung-min ( ko, 손흥민; ; born 8 July 1992) is a South Korean professional footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and captains the South Korea national team. Considered one of the best forwards i ...

; he was widely regarded as the Man of the Match by Lebanese fans.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Al-Khor * Qatari Stars Cup runner-up: 2020–21

Notes

References

External links

*
Alexander Michel Melki
at Lagstatistik * {{DEFAULTSORT:Michel Melki, Alexander 1992 births Living people Swedish people of Lebanese descent Swedish people of Syrian descent Swedish people of Assyrian/Syriac descent Lebanese people of Swedish descent Lebanese people of Syrian descent Lebanese people of Assyrian descent Sportspeople of Lebanese descent Citizens of Lebanon through descent People from Södertälje Sportspeople from Stockholm County Swedish footballers Lebanese footballers Assyrian footballers Association football defenders Association football central defenders Association football fullbacks Syrianska FC players AFC Eskilstuna players Al-Khor SC players Al-Shahania SC players Allsvenskan players Superettan players Qatar Stars League players Qatari Second Division players Sweden youth international footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers Lebanon international footballers 2019 AFC Asian Cup players Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Lebanese expatriate footballers Lebanese expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Expatriate footballers in Qatar