Tesfaldet Simon Tekie (born 4 June 1997) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Hammarby IF in Allsvenskan.
Born in Eritrea, Tekie moved to Gothenburg, Sweden, as a nine-year-old.[1] He started to play youth football with local club Marieholms BoIK, before joining Gunnilse IS in 2010.[2][3][4] In 2013, at age 15, Tekie made his debut in senior football with Gunnilse, making six league appearances in Division 3, Sweden's fifth tier.[5]
On 6 August 2013, Tekie moved to IFK Norrköping, together with his teammate Ihab Naser from Gunnilse.[6] In 2014, he was sent on loan to affiliated club IF Sylvia in Division 1, the domestic third tier, making 11 appearances.[5]
In 2015, Tekie made six appearances for IFK Norrköping in Allsvenskan, being part of the squad that won the Swedish championship.[7] On 19 July the same year, he signed a new three and a half-year contract with the club.[8]
In 2016, Tekie made 26 league appearances for IFK Norrköping, that finished 3rd in the Allsvenskan table.[5][9] He also featured in both legs as the club was knocked out in the second qualifying round of the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League, losing 4–5 on aggregate to Rosenborg.[10]
On 19 January 2017, Tekie transferred to Belgian First Division A club Gent, signing a three and a half-year contract.[11] The transfer fee was reportedly set at around €1.6 million.[12] Tekie failed to make any competitive appearances for Gent, before leaving the club by mutual consent on 3 September 2019.[13]
Tekie failed to make any competitive appearances for Gent. On 1 January 2018, he was sent on a one and a half-year loan to Östersunds FK in Allsvenskan.[14] In February, Tekie played in both legs as Östersund was knocked out in the round of 32 in the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League, losing 2–4 on aggregate to Arsenal.[15][16] He went on to make 15 league appearances for the club in 2018, before his season was cut short in September due to an injury.[17]
In 2019, Tekie remained with Östersund during the first half of the season, making 12 appearances, before returning to Gent in June.[18][19]
On 9 September 2019, Tekie signed a two-year contract with the option of a third with Fortuna Sittard in the Dutch Eredivisie.[20][21] In his debut season in 2019–20, he established himself as a starter for his new club and played 20 games, before the league was abandoned in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands.[22]
In 2020–21, Tekie made 33 league appearances, helping Fortuna Sittard to finish 11th in the Eredivisie table.[22] On 30 March 2021, the club decided to exercise their option to extend his contract for one further season.[23]
In 2021–22, Fortuna Sittard finished 15th in the league, one place above the relegation zone, with Tekie making 27 appearances.[22] In May 2022, it was announced that he would leave the club during the summer at the expiration of his contract.[24]
On 8 September 2022, Tekie signed a one-year contract with Go Ahead Eagles.[25] He made eight appearances in the 2022–23 Eredivisie, before leaving on 31 January 2023 by mutual consent after he had struggled to find motivation at the club.[26]
On 9 February 2023, Tekie returned to Sweden and signed a four-year contract with Hammarby IF.[27] After establishing himself as a regular for the club, making 16 league appearances during the first half of the season, he fell out of favor with head coach Martí Cifuentes in August the same year.[28][29][30][31] He returned to Hammarby on 31 January 2024, by request of new head coach Kim Hellberg.[32]
On 28 August 2023, he joined Apollon Limassol in the Cypriot First Division on a one-year loan, with an option to buy.[33][34] On 31 January 2024, the loan agreement was terminated. In total, he made 12 league appearances for Apollon Limassol. [35]
Between 2012 and 2018, Tekie was capped for all Swedish youth teams from the under-17's to the under-21's, making 11 appearances for all selections.[36][37]
He made his debut for the Sweden national football team on 11 January 2019 in a 2–2 friendly against Iceland, as a starter.[38][39]
IFK Norrköping
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