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Brief Profile

 
Kennedy Bakircioglu (born November 2, 1980 in Södertälje, Sweden) is a Swedish football player of Assyrian origin. He currently plays for Ajax in the Dutch League. He has also played for the Sweden national football team.

Kennedy Bakircioglu is one of the brightest players in Sweden. The youngster was born on the 2nd November 1980 in Sweden. His father Benyamin, known as Müller to his teammates and fans was an amateur player for the Swedish Assyrian club Assyriska FF where he scored a record 49 goals in the 1979 season. Like his father, Kennedy started with his local team Assyriska FF playing for their youth team before making it as first team regular alongside the likes of Assyriska Captain former Al-Zawraa and Iraqi international defender Basam Rauf Headed and his brother Gassan.
 
After making a name for himself at the club, he moved to Hammarby IF where he has become the darling of the fans. Bakircioglu can play as an attacking midfielder, as well as an out-and-out center forward. He's described as a player with pace and ability on the ball.
 
In 1999, he was given a trial by Manchester United playing one reserve game for the great club, were United beat Aston Villa 5-1, but Kennedy failed to impress the United manager Alex Ferguson to gain a contract at the club.
 
However with the form he has shown with the Swedish Under-21s and Hammarby, a big move for Kennedy is surely around the corner. He has already become very well-known for being the one of the best players in the world's best-selling soccer strategy game, Championship Manager. 

Bakircioglu's family arrived in Sweden in 1972 from Mardin, Turkey. His father, Bünyamin (Benjamin) Bakircioglu, was one of the first to play for the new club Assyriska Föreningen, a club established by the Assyrian Diaspora. Kennedy started off his professional career with Assyriska in 1996 and stayed at the club until 1999. In 1998-99, Bakircioglu had a trial with Manchester United, but did not do enough to secure a contract with the English club. In the summer of 1999, he joined Hammarby IF, and remained there for the next five years, during which time he led the team to its first championship in 2001. In his time at Hammarby, Bakircioglu was well known to many players of the computer game Championship Manager. Bakircioglu had the reputation of a legend in the game. In 2005, he was elected Hammarby's fourth greatest player of all time in an online poll held on the club's website.

In 2003, Bakircioglu moved abroad to play in Greece for Iraklis. As he had played the 2003 season in Sweden, he joined his new team half-way through their season and only managed seven league appearances. In his second and last season at the club, he was unable to hold down a first team place and was soon on the move again. He joined the Dutch team FC Twente prior to the start of the 2005-06 season and impressed his manager Fred Rutten straight away to become a first team regular. In fact, in his two seasons at the club he only missed two league appearances and managed to score 23 goals. His efforts didn't go unnoticed and on 5 May 2007, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf announced that Bakircioglu would be playing for Ajax in the 2007-08 season. He was officially signed by Ajax ten days later on 15 May 2007. At Ajax, he immediately secured his second career trophy when they beat PSV Eindhoven 1-0 in the Johan Cruijff-schaal. In his first Dutch League match for Ajax, he scored one goal in the 8-1 drubbing of De Graafschap.

He also played for the u21 Swedish team and also a few times for Swedish team itself.