Sharbel Touma (; born 25 March 1979) is a Swedish former 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 lea ...

who played as a winger. Beginning his career with Syrianska in the mid-1990s, he went on to represent

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. Djurgårdens IF is an s ...

, AIK,

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational urban areas of Sweden, city at the mouth of the Nissan (river), Nissan river, in the provinces of Sweden, province of Halland on the Sweden, Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat ...

Twente Twente ( , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germanic people ...

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

, and Iraklis before returning to Syranska in 2011 to wrap up his career. A full international between 2001 and 2004, he won two

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for the Sweden national team.

Early life

Touma was born in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, Lebanon, into a

Syriac Orthodox The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The church upholds the Mia ...

family with roots in the

Tur Abdin Tur Abdin (; ; ; or ) is a hilly region situated in southeast Turkey, including the eastern half of the Mardin Province, and Şırnak Province west of the Tigris, on the Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria and famed since Late Antiquity for ...

region of southern Turkey, he moved to Sweden at a young age and was granted

Swedish citizenship Swedish nationality law determines entitlement to Swedish citizenship. Citizenship of Sweden is based primarily on the principle of ''jus sanguinis''. In other words, citizenship is conferred primarily by birth to a Swedish parent, irrespectiv ...

Club career

Touma made his senior debut for

Syrianska FC Syrianska Football Club, also known as Syrianska FC or simply Syrianska, is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Södertälje in Stockholm County. The club was founded by Aramean people, Syriac-Aramean immigrants ...

in the 1994 Division 2. He joined

, where he won the PSM för klubblag with the under-16 squad. He debuted in the senior team in the 1997 season. He later played for AIK,

Halmstads BK Halmstads Bollklubb, also known simply as Halmstad () or (especially locally) HBK or Bollklubben, is a Swedish professional Association football, football club located in Halmstad in the county of Halland. The club, formed 7 February 1914 and app ...

and F.C. Twente. He won "the Big Silver" (Stora Silvret in Swedish, second place in the Swedish top league,

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

) with Halmstads BK 2004 and left them for FC Twente. On 4 November 2008 was suspended and called up for the second team from

between December 2008, he also release the club in July 2009 to sign with Iraklis. Touma was on a trial with the Norwegian football club

Rosenborg BK Rosenborg Ballklub, commonly referred to simply as Rosenborg () or RBK, is a Norwegian professional association football, football club from Trondheim that plays in Eliteserien (football), Eliteserien. The club has won a record 26 league titles ...

and on 22 March 2010 Touma returned from Iraklis Thessaloniki F.C. to his mother club

of the Allsvenskan. He played from 1997–99 in Stockholm and scored 10 goals in 48 matches. In 2017, Touma re-joined Syrianska, playing one league match.

International career

A youth international for the Sweden U16, U18, and U21 teams, Touma made his full international debut for

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

on 1 February 2001 in a friendly 0–1 loss against

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

when he played for 77 minutes before being replaced by Christian Hemberg. He won his second and final

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

on 17 October 2004 in a friendly 4–1 win against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, coming on as a substitute for Christian Wilhelmsson in the 76th minute.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Djurgårdens IF *

Division 1 Norra Ettan Fotboll, or simply Ettan (), which also is its common name in everyday speech, is the third level in the Swedish football league system and consists of 32 Swedish football teams. It was formerly simply known as ''Division 1''. Division 1 ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

FC Twente *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

Borussia Mönchengladbach * 2. Bundesliga: 2007–08

References

;General * ;Specific

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Touma, Sharbel 1979 births Living people Swedish people of Assyrian descent Swedish people of Lebanese descent Sportspeople of Lebanese descent Footballers from Beirut Assyrian footballers Swedish men's footballers Men's association football wingers Sweden men's international footballers Syrianska FC players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players AIK Fotboll players Halmstads BK players FC Twente players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Iraklis F.C. (Thessaloniki) players Syrianska FC managers Allsvenskan players Superettan players Ettan Fotboll players Division 2 (Swedish football) players Eredivisie players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Swedish football managers Swedish Christians Syriac Orthodox Christians