The club was founded in September 2004 by members of the Kurdish diaspora. It played its first game in 2005 and has grown to now play at the level of league champions Malmo FF.
The name of the club is a combination of Kurdish and Swedish. The initial ‘Dal’ is the name of the region in which the club was founded – ‘Dalana.’ The players’ clothes bear the Kurdish flag.
The club was founded to give troubled teenagers an alternative “and a possibility for a better future,” it states on its website.
But Dalkurd has achieved more than that.
The founder of the club had not played football before. He was a prominent politician from Turkish Kurdistan who lived in Sweden.
Ramazan Kizil was 25 when he was chosen chieftain, mukhtar, of Gre Mira village in Nisebini in Turkish Kurdistan. Members of the club still call him ‘mukhtar.’
He is head of the club, although he is still interested in politics. He wants to put sports in the service of his stateless nation.
Kizil told Rudaw: “The main idea behind the founding of Dalkurd was revenge for being immigrants and taking revenge from enemies when they ask you to disappear from sight, and you say no. I couldn’t work in my country under my name, but I want to prove myself in the place where you wished to see me disappear.”
Dalkurd is a place where many Kurdish youth and other diaspora groups realize their dreams. The Kurdish diaspora in Europe have hope in Dalkurd to play a role in European sports.
Azrudin Valentic is the team’s new coach.
“We must keep working…” he said. “Behind us is really only one month of hard work. The guys are really professional. We must have a little better organization in the club … But we have good motivation, we are working hard and I think before the first game in the first or second week of April, we’ll be ready.”
Amir Azrafshan, assistant coach for Dalkurd, is from Iranian Kurdistan. He praised the team’s advancement to the top tier, saying it’s “something new to most of us,” though some individual players have played at this level before.
A montage of Dalkurd highlights from 2017, when they earned a promotion and are now playing in Sweden's top league. Video: Rudaw TV
There are 16 different nationalities among Dalkurd staff and players.
Yukia Sugita, a player originally from Japan, said: “Before coming over here, I was playing in Thailand. I wanted to play again in Europe, and my agent talked with [Dalkurd management].”
Kebba Ceesay is originally from Gambia and was asked why he was interested in playing for the club.
“For me, it’s the history of Dalkurd that it started in 2004. It’s had an amazing journey and is very unique the way the team started and how we have climbed all the way to first division and the brotherhood. We have different nationalities, but we are here, we are all one and it’s a lot of love, we like each other and really enjoy spending time and playing together. That’s the most amazing part of the club,” he said.
Kurdish activities in Europe are largely associated with political parties. The founders of Dalkurd expressly wanted to avoid this.
“I along with eight other people founded this club, and the first decision we made was that we should belong to no parties,” said Kizil.
“We have opened a company in Kurdistan named Dalkurd – 51 percent of the club is owned by the club and 49 percent is owned by a Kurdish businessman called Kawa Abdullah. And this created a big opportunity for Dalkurd to realize its aims,” he explained.
On April 2, Dalkurd played against AIK Solna.
“Like previous years, we hope and aim to win because this club started and became famous by winning. We are not afraid. For us, there is no difference that we have now come to a tougher round compared to previous rounds,” team captain Peshraw Azizi explained ahead of the game.
“We are very happy that we are playing football at the highest level in Sweden. We have a new and very competent coach,” said player Rewan Amin.
Dalkurd lost the match to AIK Solna.
The biggest goal of Dalkurd is to see the club participating in the European Champions League, wearing the Kurdistan flag and logo.
“We had two aims: one short term, the other long term. We achieved the short term one by reaching Sweden’s top tier. Our long term aim is to play in the Champions League so that the entire world sees that Kurds exist. This is not imagination or hope for us – we will try in the next two to three years to reach this level,” Kizil said.
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