Kenny Joelle Tete (born 9 October 1995) is a Dutch 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

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 ...

for club

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

and the Netherlands national team.

Club career

Ajax

Tete was born in Amsterdam where he grew up and played for AFC DWS and AVV Zeeburgia before he was recruited into the Ajax Academy in 2005 at the age of 10. The 2011–12 season saw Tete playing for the Ajax B1 team, the second highest youth level in the academy, as a

, and helping his side to clinch the B-Juniors Eredivisie title. He signed his first professional contract with Ajax on 20 July 2012, binding him to the Amsterdam club until 30 June 2015. He spent his first year as a professional playing for the Ajax A1 youth team, without receiving any call-ups to the first team. The following season saw Tete, alongside fellow academy player

Riechedly Bazoer Riechedly Bazoer (born 12 October 1996) is a Dutch professional footballer of Curaçaoan descent who plays as a midfielder for Dutch club AZ. Club career Ajax Bazoer joined Ajax on a free from rival Eredivisie club PSV on 16 November ...

, receive his first call-up to the first team which participated in the pre-season training camp in Austria. Tete appeared in his first match for the first team in a pre-season friendly match against

SDC Putten Sterk Door Combinatie Putten (SDC Putten) is an association football club from Putten, Netherlands. It was founded in 1952. History In 1966 SDC Putten promoted from the Tweede Klasse to the Hoofdklasse. Since, it plays predominantly in the Hoof ...

on 29 June 2013. The match ended in a 4–1 away victory for Ajax, with Tete coming on as a substitute for Ruben Ligeon in the 45th minute. He made his professional debut that season in the

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...

, the 2nd tier of professional football in the Netherlands, playing for the recently promoted reserves team Jong Ajax, in what would be the team's first-ever appearance in that division, against

Telstar Telstar is the name of various communications satellites. The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the fir ...

on 5 August 2013. The match ended in a 2–0 victory for Jong Ajax at the

Amsterdam ArenA The Johan Cruyff Arena ( nl, Johan Cruijff Arena ; officially stylised as Johan Cruijff ArenA) is the main stadium of the Dutch capital city of Amsterdam and the home stadium of football club AFC Ajax since its opening. Built from 1993 to 1996 ...

. Having appeared on the bench for the first team during the 2013–14 season, it wasn't until the second half of the 2014–15 season that Tete would make his debut for the first team in an official match, appearing in the 1–0 home loss to

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known as AZ Alkmaar or simply AZ (), is a Dutch professional football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan district. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest professional football league in the Netherlands, and ho ...

on 5 February 2015 as a 69th-minute substitute. Tete went on to make 55 appearances for Ajax, including helping them reach the 2017 Europa League Final.

Lyon

On 10 July 2017, Tete was acquired by French side

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

for a fee believed to be around €3m. Tete scored his first goal for Lyon in a 3–3 draw against

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

play on 19 August 2017. In total, Tete would go on to make 82 appearances for the club in just over three years with Lyon, prominently featuring in their run to the semi-finals of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

during the 2019–20 season.

Fulham

On 10 September 2020,

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

confirmed the signing of Tete from Lyon on a four-year deal with the option of a further year. He was given the number 2 shirt. Tete made his debut in a 1–0 win against

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

in the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

second round. He scored his first goal for Fulham in a 7–0 win at

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

on 11 January 2022. In Fulham's opening match of the

2022–23 Premier League The 2022–23 Premier League will be the 31st season of the Premier League, and the 124th season of top-flight English football overall. The provisional fixtures are scheduled to be released on Wednesday 15 June 2022. As of the 2022–23 season, c ...

season, Tete provided the assist for

Aleksandar Mitrović Aleksandar Mitrović ( sr-Cyrl, Александар Митровић, (); born 16 September 1994) is a Serbian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for club Fulham F.C., Fulham a ...

's opening goal in a 2–2 home draw against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

International career

On 25 October 2011, Tete made his debut for the Netherlands national under-17 team in a

UEFA European Under-17 Championship The UEFA European Under-17 Championship or simply UEFA Under-17 Championship, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-17 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain is the most successful team in this ...

qualifying match against

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

, which ended in a 3–0 win for the Dutch. He made two further appearances during the qualifying rounds but was not included in the final 22-man squad which clinched the 2012 UEFA European Under-17 Championship in Slovakia. Tete received his first under-19 call-up when he was named in the squad for the 2013 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. He appeared in all three group stage matches. The team defeated hosts

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

3–2 in the opening match but lost their next two matches against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, failing to advance past the group stage. Tete received his first call up to the senior Netherlands team in August 2015. Tete played his first cap for the Dutch national team on 10 October against Kazakhstan.

Personal life

Tete was born and raised in Amsterdam to a father from

Beira, Mozambique Beira is the capital and largest city of Sofala Province, where the Pungwe River meets the Indian Ocean, in the central region of Mozambique. It is the fourth-largest city by population in Mozambique, after Maputo, Matola and Nampula. Beira had a ...

and a mother from

Nias Nias ( id, Pulau Nias, Nias language: ''Tanö Niha'') (sometimes called Little Sumatra in English) is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago () of which the island is the centre, ...

, Indonesia. His father Miguel Tete had relocated to the Netherlands with his family at age 5 during the

Mozambican War of Independence The Mozambican War of Independence ( pt, Guerra da Independência de Moçambique, 'War of Independence of Mozambique') was an armed conflict between the guerrilla forces of the Mozambique Liberation Front or FRELIMO () and Portugal. The w ...

, and is a former European heavyweight kickboxing champion, who works at

The Bulldog The Bulldog is an Amsterdam-based company that owns and operates a chain of cannabis coffee shops, hotels, cafés and brand stores located at Amsterdam and Canada. The Bulldog has its own merchandising brand consisting of clothing, souveni ...

coffeeshop on the

Leidseplein Leidseplein (English: Leiden Square) is a square in central Amsterdam, Netherlands. It lies in the Weteringschans neighborhood ( Centrum borough), immediately northeast of the Singelgracht. It is located on the crossroads of the Weteringschans, Ma ...

in downtown Amsterdam.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Ajax *

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

runner-up: 2016–17 Fulham *

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 ...

: 2021–22
Netherlands U17 *

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 gather ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Fulham F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tete, Kenny 1995 births Living people Footballers from Amsterdam Dutch footballers Association football defenders AFC Ajax players Jong Ajax players Olympique Lyonnais players Fulham F.C. players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Ligue 1 players Championnat National 2 players Premier League players English Football League players Netherlands youth international footballers Netherlands under-21 international footballers Netherlands international footballers Dutch expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in France Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England Dutch expatriate sportspeople in France Dutch people of Indonesian descent Dutch people of Mozambican descent