Abdallah Kerim Mrabti ( ar, كريم عبدالله مرابطي; born 20 May 1994) 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

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

club KV Mechelen. He began his career with Enköpings SK, and moved on to for

IK Sirius IK Sirius is a Swedish bandy club located in Uppsala, currently playing in Elitserien. IK Sirius were formed in 1907 and play their home games at Studenternas Idrottsplats. History IK Sirius' first success was becoming Swedish runners-up in 1 ...

and

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Name The club is named ...

, with whom he won the

2017–18 Svenska Cupen The 2017–18 Svenska Cupen was the 62nd season of the Svenska Cupen and the sixth season with the current format. The winners of the competition earned a place in the second qualifying round of the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League, unless they had a ...

. In January 2019, he joined English

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 ...

(second-tier) club

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

on an 18-month contract, and signed for KV Mechelen in August 2020. He made his senior international debut for

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 ...

in 2016.

Career

Mrabti was born in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

and moved to

Enköping Enköping is a locality and the seat of Enköping Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 30,000 inhabitants in 2018. Geography Enköping is situated near Lake Mälaren, about 78 km west of Stockholm. A comparably large number of Swedi ...

as a five-year-old. He started out playing for the local club Enköpings SK. At 17 he played a big part in Enköping winning their fourth tier league and getting promoted. After the following season had ended in November 2012 he trialed with

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

-based club

and impressed enough to be signed on a two-year deal. After two seasons with IK Sirius, one in the third tier and the next in the second-tier

Superettan Superettan (; meaning the super first (division)) is an association football league and the second highest league in the league system of Swedish men's football. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Al ...

, Mrabti was sold to

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 ...

club

in early 2015 for 600,000–700,000 SEK. On 25 May Mrabti scored his first two goals for Djurgården in the Tvillingderby against local rival

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 ...

in front of 27,137 people at the

Tele2 Arena The Stockholmsarenan, known as the Tele2 Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a retractable roof multi-purpose stadium in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov, just south of Stockholm City Centre, Sweden. It is used mostly for concerts and football m ...

in a game which ended 2–2. At the end of the

2015 Allsvenskan The 2015 Allsvenskan, part of the 2015 Swedish football season was the 91st season of Allsvenskan since its establishment in 1924. The 2015 fixtures were released on 21 January 2015. The season started on 4 April 2015, when BK Häcken visited new ...

season he received the

player of the year award Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

by the club's supporter group

Järnkaminerna Järnkaminerna (lit. The Iron Stoves) is the largest official supporter club of the sports club Djurgårdens IF. Järnkaminerna is also a nickname for the sports club itself. A common shortened form of the supporters club Järnkaminerna is JK. ...

as well as the award for best newcomer of the year in the entire league. Ahead of the new season in 2017 Mrabti was handed the number 10 shirt. On 10 May 2018 he scored as Djurgården beat

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, ...

3–0 in the Swedish Cup Final. He left the club at the end of the season, and on 18 January 2019, signed an 18-month contract on a free deal with

of the

, the second tier of

football in England Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of ...

. Always in or around the first team but never a regular in the starting eleven, Mrabti made 27 appearances in all competitions (18 league starts) and scored three goals. The arrival of

Scott Hogan Scott Andrew Hogan (born 13 April 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Birmingham City and the Republic of Ireland national team. Hogan played in the youth system at Rochdale but was released in 2010. He entered ...

in January 2020 and the season interrupted by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

further restricted his opportunities, and he left the club when his contract expired in June 2020. After training with his former club, Djurgården, Mrabti signed a three-year contract with KV Mechelen of the

International career

Mrabti represented Sweden at under-19 and under-21 levels. In January 2016 he suffered an

ACL injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during inju ...

only 25 minutes into his senior debut for

against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. Mrabti was expected to back in full training in September later that year. He was included in Sweden's squad in December 2017. Despite his having played for Sweden in

friendly matches An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

were keen to add him to their 2018 World Cup squad. On 13 May 2018 Mrabti announced he had turned down the opportunity. He was called into Sweden's squad in December 2018.

Personal life

Mrabti's father is Tunisian while his mother is half Swedish and half Finnish. He first became a

supporter after attending the

2003–04 UEFA Champions League The 2003–04 UEFA Champions League was the 12th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since its rebranding from the European Cup in 1992, and the 49th tournament overall. The competition was won by ...

qualifier against

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; en, Partizan Football Club), sometimes known as Partizan Belgrade in English, is a Serbia, Serbian professional football club (association football), football ...

and he also visited their training ground to collect autographs from the players. In November 2016 Mrabti said in the Fan-TV show "08 Fotboll" that his dream was to one day play in the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

Career statistics

International

:''As of 1 June 2022''

Honours

Djurgårdens IF *

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 ...

: 2017–18 Individual *

newcomer of the year:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Årets Järnkamin Årets Järnkamin ''(literally Iron Stove of the Year)'' is an award given to a Djurgårdens IF player, or coach, voted by the members of the official supporter club Järnkaminerna (The Iron Stoves). A person whom they felt represented the core val ...

: 2015

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mrabti, Kerim 1994 births Living people Footballers from Stockholm Swedish footballers Sweden international footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers Sweden youth international footballers Association football midfielders IK Sirius Fotboll players Enköpings SK players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players Birmingham City F.C. players K.V. Mechelen players Allsvenskan players Superettan players English Football League players Swedish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Belgium Swedish people of Tunisian descent Swedish people of Finnish descent