Sharbel Touma

Sharbel Touma
Touma in a tracksuit from Borussia Mönchengladbach
Personnel
birthday	March 25, 1979
place of birth	Beirut ,  Lebanon
position	Storm
Juniors
Years	station
1986-1993	Motala AIF
1994	Syrianska FC
1994-1997	Djurgårdens IF
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1997-1999	Djurgårdens IF	46 0(9)
2000-2001	AIK	29 0(4)
2002-2004	Halmstads BK	68 (20)
2004-2007	FC Twente Enschede	79 (18)
2007-2009	Borussia Monchengladbach	18 0(3)
2009	Iraklis Saloniki	8 0(0)
2010	Djurgårdens IF	26 0(5)
2011-2014	Syrianska FC	72 (18)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
2001-2004	Sweden	2 0(0)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
2017–	Syrianska FC
1 Only league games are given.

Sharbel Touma (born March 25, 1979 in Beirut , Lebanon ) is a former Swedish football player of Assyrian descent who began a coaching career after retiring. The striker , who has played two caps for the Swedish national team , was versatile and could be used on both the left and the right wing.

Career

Early years

Touma was born in Lebanon and came to Motala in Sweden with his family in 1984 . In 1986 he started playing football in the youth department of the local club Motala AIF . In 1994 he moved to the youth department of Syrianska FC , founded by Aramaic immigrants , where he stayed only briefly to join the youth team of the then Swedish first division club Djurgårdens IF .

Touma made his debut in Swedish professional football in the 1997 season when he was used for Stockholm after their relegation from the Swedish House of Lords in the then two-part second division . In his first season he came to eight missions, in the second year he contributed with two goals in 16 games to return to the Swedish House of Lords. However, he fell ill with an initially mysterious disease that was later diagnosed as a blood disease - a deficiency in red blood cells. Recovered, Touma knew how to play in the Allsvenskan and scored eight goals this season in 24 games. However, the 1999 season was unsuccessful for the club and as bottom of the table, the team had to accept direct relegation. Due to his personal successes, Touma drew the interest of other first division clubs such as IFK Göteborg or the reigning champions Helsingborgs IF , but ultimately switched to local rivals AIK .

Vice title and national team

Touma's first time at his new club wasn't a lucky star. Even before the start of the season he had to deal with injuries and, after lung and stomach problems, did not make his competitive debut for AIK until October. His second year at the club was a little more successful. First he made his debut in the Swedish national team on February 1, 2001, when the latter, riddled with many debutants, lost 1-0 to the Finnish national team in a pre-season game . In the course of the season he fluctuated at AIK between substitute bench and starting eleven, but was used in 25 of the 26 season games and was able to score four goals. In addition, AIK reached the final of the Svenska Cup , in which the striker became a tragic figure: In the penalty shoot-out against IF Elfsborg , he missed the decisive penalty.

After two years at AIK Touma left the club from Solna and moved on to Halmstads BK within Allsvenskan . Under the new coach Jonas Thern he was able to establish himself in the regular formation of the southern Swedish club and reached the runner-up in the 2004 season under his successor Jan Andersson . Over the course of the season he also found his way back to the old danger of scoring and formed the club's powerful storm duo with Markus Rosenberg , who was on loan from Malmö FF , who also became the top scorer in the Swedish elite series thanks to the numerous assists, and played his way back into the national team. After completing the series, he came on November 17, 2004 in a 4-1 away win against the Scottish national team for his second international match when he came on in the 76th minute for Christian Wilhelmsson .

Success in the Netherlands, failure in Germany and Greece

Since his contract with Halmstads BK ran out, Touma left Sweden immediately after the end of the season and tried his luck at FC Twente Enschede , where his compatriot Daniel Majstorović was already under contract. Under coach Rini Coolen he made his debut in the Eredivisie in December and played without interruption until summer 2005. After the club bought the unsuccessful Swede Kennedy Bakırcıoğlu at Iraklis Saloniki , the two Swedes together with Blaise Nkufo formed the successful attack of the Dutch club. Although coach Fred Rutten tried to keep Touma at the club, the player announced his departure from the club in 2007 despite successfully qualifying for the UEFA Cup .

After speculation about a commitment at Ajax Amsterdam , where storm partner Bakircioglu had switched, at AZ Alkmaar or PSV Eindhoven , the then German second division Borussia Mönchengladbach announced the commitment of the striker. With the “foals”, Touma managed an immediate promotion back to the 1st Bundesliga under coach Jos Luhukay , but was only used in 16 of 34 games of the season, with three scorers in the last third of the season. He made his debut in the Bundesliga on September 20, 2008, the 5th matchday of the 2008/09 season , when he came on for Karim Matmour 15 minutes before the final whistle in the 0-1 home defeat against Hertha BSC . On November 4, 2008, coach Hans Meyer banished Touma from the professional squad, as he no longer played a role in the planning. Then reported Malmo FF of interest in a return of the striker to Sweden. Touma also turned down an offer from Hammarby IF to return to the Allsvenskan.

On June 22, 2009, Borussia Mönchengladbach announced that the contract with Touma, which was originally valid until June 2010, was prematurely terminated. He then moved to the Greek Superleague to Iraklis Saloniki . In the team around players like Matías Lequi , Mauro Milano , Denis Epstein and Bogdan Mara , he could not establish himself as a regular. Still in the starting line-up at the start of the season, he soon found himself on the bench and was only used irregularly as a substitute.

Return to Sweden

Touma left Greece at the end of March 2010 and joined his first professional station in Stockholm. At Djurgårdens IF he signed a contract that was valid until the end of the 2010 season and was numbered "17". By the end of the season he contributed five goals - including the game-winning goal to the 2-1 success in the derby with his former AIK playing station - in 26 games to keep the team relegated.

After only one season Touma changed clubs again and joined the first division newcomer Syrianska FC. At his youth play station he signed a two-year contract. In the following two seasons, the club narrowly secured relegation, Touma was a key player - in the 2012 season he led the club's internal goalscorers list with eight goals this season together with Dinko Felić . The club then extended his contract for two years. At the end of the 2013 season , however, he was relegated with the team from the highest Swedish league, although he had already slipped into the second tier during the season. In the second division season in 2014 , he finally played only six season games.

After there had already been speculation, Touma confirmed his retirement in February 2015.

Start of the coaching career

In December 2016, the then second division Syrianska FC announced that Touma had taken over as head coach. From the beginning of the second division season in 2017 , the team was in a relegation battle in the Superettan, at the end of the season they rose as penultimate with five points behind a relegation place directly in the third division Division 1 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ David Durmaz om mötet med sin nya klubb . svenskafans.com, accessed July 10, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b} "SHARBEL TOUMA - HAN SLOG ALDRIG RIKTIGT IGENOM I AIK" - Entry on the AIK association page ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on October 19, 2008) 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Borussias Neue: Sharbel Touma - Article about Touma at seitenwahl.de ( Memento from December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ "Meyer takes hold" - article in Spiegel Online (accessed November 4, 2008)
5. ↑ "MFF intresserat av Sharbel Touma" - article at sydsvenskan.se  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed December 11, 2008)  
6. ↑ "Sharbel Touma nobbar Hammarby" - article at fotbollsexpressen.se ( memento of the original from January 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on February 6, 2009) 
7. ↑ Contract terminated - Article at Borussia.de (accessed on June 22, 2009)
8. ↑ dif.se: "Sharbel Touma till DIF" ( Memento of the original from March 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on April 7, 2010) 
9. ↑ expressen.se: "Sharbel Touma klar - för Syrianska" ( Memento of the original from November 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on January 21, 2011) 
10. ↑ fotbolltransfers.com: "Officiellt: Sharbel Touma förlänger med Syrianska FC" (accessed on February 13, 2015)
11. ↑ fotbolltransfers.com: "KLART: Sharbel Touma lägger av" (accessed on February 13, 2015)
12. ↑ fotbollskanalen.se: "Officiellt: Sharbel Touma ny huvudtränare i Syrianska" (accessed on November 11, 2017)

Web links

• Sharbel Touma in the database of weltfussball.de
• Sharbel Touma in the eredivisie.nl database