Kenneth Nlata "Ken" Sema (born 30 September 1993) is a Swedish 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 le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

and the Sweden national team.

Club career

Early career

Sema got promoted to the

IFK Norrköping Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Norrköping, more commonly known as IFK Norrköping or simply Norrköping, is a Swedish professional football club based in Norrköping. The club is affiliated to Östergötlands Fotbollförbund and play their ...

first team as a 19-year old in 2013. However, he spent the entire season on loan to

IF Sylvia IF Sylvia is a Swedish football club based in Norrköping. The club, formed on 19 May 1922, is currently playing in the third tier of Swedish football, Division 1. The club is affiliated to the Östergötlands Fotbollförbund. In the early years ...

and did not get his contract renewed after it expired at the end of the season. In 2014, he signed for second-tier team

Ljungskile SK Ljungskile SK is a Swedish football club located in Ljungskile, a town within Uddevalla Municipality. They currently play in the Swedish third tier, Division 1. History Ljungskile SK, formed in 1926, is famous for their promotions between 19 ...

Östersunds FK

In January 2016, Sema signed for

Östersunds FK Östersunds Fotbollsklubb, commonly known simply as Östersunds FK, Östersund () or (especially locally) ÖFK, is a Swedish professional football club located in Östersund, Sweden and since 2022 play in the Swedish second tier, Superettan. The ...

in the

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

, where he would have his major breakthrough. Sema won the

2016–17 Svenska Cupen The 2016–17 Svenska Cupen was the 61st season of Svenska Cupen and the fifth season with the current format. The winners of the competition will earn a place in the second qualifying round of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League, unless they have alr ...

with Östersund, assisting three of their four goals in the final, and later played a major role in their

2017–18 UEFA Europa League The 2017–18 UEFA Europa League was the 47th season of Europe's secondary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 9th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The 2018 UEFA Europ ...

campaign. On 22 February 2018, Sema scored a goal in a 2–1 win against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in the round of 32. Despite this, Östersund were eliminated from the Europa League after losing 2–4 on aggregate.

Watford

On 4 July 2018, Östersunds FK chairman Daniel Kindberg revealed that Sema was close to signing for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

on a five-year contract. The next day, Watford confirmed the signing.

Loan to Udinese

On 22 August 2019,

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Football in Italy, Italian association football, football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a ...

signed Sema on a season-long loan from Watford. He made his

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

debut for Udinese on 25 August 2019 in a 1–0 win against

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons ...

International career

In 2016, Sema was a part of the Sweden Olympic team that played in Brazil, and scored his first U23 goal in a match against South Korea Olympic. In January 2017, he debuted for the Sweden senior team in a friendly 6–0 win over

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. Sema was an unused substitute in the two-legged playoff against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in November 2017, which Sweden won, and therefore qualified for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

. Despite featuring in commercials with the rest of the Sweden squad before the World Cup, Sema was eventually left out of the World Cup squad. Sema made his competitive international debut in a

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, played across Europe ...

game against the

Faroe Islands national football team The Faroe Islands national football team ( fo, Føroyska fótbóltsmanslandsliðið) represents the Faroe Islands in association football and is governed by the Faroe Islands Football Association (FSF). The FSF became a member of FIFA in 198 ...

which Sweden won 3–0.

Personal life

Sema was born in Sweden to Congolese parents, and his brother

Maic Sema Maic Ndongala Namputu Sema (born 2 December 1988) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays for IFK Norrköping. Career Sema was born in Lycksele. Until 2011, he played for Hammarby IF, where he came from IF Sylvia summer 2008. In the 201 ...

is also a footballer.

Career statistics

International

Honours

Östersund *

Svenska Cupen Svenska Cupen (, ''The Swedish Cup'') is a knockout cup competition in Swedish football and the main Swedish football cup. Svenska Cupen usually refers to the men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also held. Each year 96 teams compe ...

: 2016–17

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sema, Ken 1993 births Living people People from Norrköping Swedish footballers Sweden international footballers Sweden youth international footballers Swedish people of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Swedish sportspeople of African descent European sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Association football midfielders Ljungskile SK players Östersunds FK players Watford F.C. players Udinese Calcio players Allsvenskan players Superettan players Premier League players Serie A players Olympic footballers of Sweden Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics UEFA Euro 2020 players Swedish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy English Football League players Sportspeople from Östergötland County