Sure it was only a Europa league qualifier, but….

By: Luka | August 28th, 2009

Kennedy Bakircioglu is an Assyrian-Swede who began his career with Assyriska Sodertalje. According to the infallible Wikipedia, he trialled with Manchester United before securing a move to Swedish giants Hammarby. Kennedy truly became a star in his two seasons at Twente between 2005-2007 however, where he was one of the Dutch Eredevise’s best and most consistent performers, racking up so many goals and assists it left your head spinning (well, mine did least). Epic football club Ajax Amsterdam came calling, and to put it mildly, they basically pressed the pause button on his career. He really hasn’t played much since this move, sporadically coming off the bench and starting games as often as Usain Bolt runs 100m in more than 10 seconds.

Last season Kennedy became (probably, I’m just speculating) the first Assyrian to score in the illustrious UEFA Cup (link), helping Ajax (and evil coach Van Basten – evil in my book because he rarely started Kennedy) to a win over even more illustrious Fiorentina (without sarcasm this time). See the glorious strike here.

Well, the Assyrian Pele (an opinion shared mostly by myself and a few old men in a pub) repeated this feat, only in the qualifying stage of the Europa league, winning the game for Ajax with a majestic, iridescent and Shakespearean free kick in the 84th minute. Facts such as who it was against (Slovan Bratislava) and the context of the match (it was the second leg and Ajax were already 6-1 up on aggregate) are hardly relevant in my humble, objective and non-hyperbolic opinion.

Screw you Van Basten for not playing Kennedy, you could have seen this happening every week!

His goal can be seen at 7:00:

For those of you less informed about Assyriska and Assyrian football for that matter as well (so, essentially, almost everyone), Kennedy is probably best known around for being somewhat of a legend in the popular game Championship Manager (notably the 01-02 version). There are many a forum where his name pops us, with bored and probably lonely people reminiscing of the days when he would be the first person in their team at a time when the real Ronaldo was in his prime.

Well done Kennedy, keep putting those goals in and prove your doubters wrong! If Assyrians had a national team recognised by FIFA (I say it’s time we do a Cataluña) you’d have my vote for captain.