Benjamin Kibebe (born August 13, 1981) is a Swedish professional former

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 le ...

who played as a defender. He won one cap for the Sweden national team in 2001.

Career

Early career

Kibebe was born in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

and moved to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

as a child. He began his career with local side

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differe ...

but in 1999 moved to their bitter rivals

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

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 Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

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 Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Tromsø (city), city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies ...

as he played in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

. The club beat Danish club

Esbjerg fB Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber (; commonly known as Esbjerg fB or EfB in short) is a Danish professional football club based in Esbjerg, West Jutland, that plays in the 2nd division, the third-tier of the Danish football league system. Foun ...

in the qualifying round then Turkish club Galatasaray in the

First Round First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

to qualified to the group stages. The team were drawn in

Group E Group E may refer to: * E-Group: E-Groups are unique architectural complexes found among a number of ancient Maya settlements * Group E (vase painting) Group E (or E Group) was a group of Attic vase painters of the black-figure style. They were a ...

alongside AS Roma,

RC Strasbourg Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace (commonly known as RC Strasbourg, Racing Straßburg, RCSA, RCS, or simply Strasbourg; Alsatian: ''Füeßbàllmànnschàft Vu Stroßburri'') is a French association football club founded in 1906, based in the c ...

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

and

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in Bel ...

. At the end of the 2006 season Kibebe left Tromsø IL for Aalesunds FK who had just been promoted from the

1. divisjon The Norwegian First Division, also called 1. divisjon and OBOS-ligaen (named sponsor is property developer OBOS), is the second-highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Each year, the top finishing teams in the 1. divisjon are p ...

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 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

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

contest against the Scottish club Queen of the South."Club History" on the official Queen of the South website

Switzerland

On 5 May 2010, the day after FC Nordsjælland's Danish Cup victory he was bought by the Swiss Club

FC Luzern Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (german: Luzern). It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league syste ...

. Kibebe signed a three-year contract.

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.

External links

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixb1YaUy1bc *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WobRQpON1w *http://www.ethiosports.com/2010/11/01/q-a-benjamin-%E2%80%9Cbenyam%E2%80%9D-kibebe-of-fc-luzern-switzerland/
FCL buys a Swedish defender

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kibebe, Benjamin 1981 births Living people Ethiopian emigrants to Sweden Swedish footballers Sweden international footballers AIK Fotboll players Aalesunds FK players Tromsø IL players FC Midtjylland players FC Nordsjælland players Allsvenskan players Eliteserien players Danish Superliga players Swedish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Norway Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark FC Luzern players Swiss Super League players Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Association football defenders Sportspeople from Addis Ababa