Introduction
Simon Tibbling (born 7 September 1994) is a Swedish footballer who plays as a midfielder for FC Groningen in the Dutch Eredivisie.
Career
Early career
Tibbling started out playing football at age six when his mother brought him to play with the local lower league club Grödinge SK. At age nine Tibbling was invited by Stockholm based club IF Brommapojkarna, known for its youth academy to come train with them and six months later he joined them permanently. During his years there Tibbling drew a lot of attention from some of the biggest clubs in the world. He went on trials with Manchester United, FC Bayern Munich and AFC Ajax. In the summer of 2010 Ajax met and negotiated with Brommapojkarna, but Tibbling wanted to stay in Sweden. Before the 2011 season Tibbling instead chose to move to the bigger Stockholm club Djurgårdens IF.
Djurgårdens IF
Simon Tibbling made his senior debut in Djurgårdens IF coming on as a sub in the top Swedish division Allsvenskan against Kalmar FF in the 91st minute. He then made his starting debut in the league against IFK Göteborg on the 3rd of July 2012. Four days after his 18th birthday Tibbling signed a first team contract, extending his deal with Djurgården by another 4.5 years.
FC Groningen
On 28 November 2014, Tibbling was presented as a new FC Groningen player, as of 1 January 2015.
International career
Tibbling has represented Sweden at the U17, U19 and U21 levels. In the final group match against Portugal in the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, Tibbling scored an equalizer in 89th minute which put Sweden through to the semi-final.
He again scored in a 4-1 victory in the semi-final against Scandinavian rival Denmark, which saw Sweden advance to the final for the first time since 1992. He also started the final against Portugal. The game ended 0-0 and eventually went to penalties, where Sweden won 4-3, securing their first Under-21 title.
Career statistics
Club
- As of 21 September 2016
| Club | Season | League | Cup | Continental | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Djurgårdens IF | 2012 | Allsvenskan | 15 | 1 | 1 | 0 | — | 16 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 28 | 1 | 4 | 0 | — | 32 | 1 | |||
| 2014 | 30 | 1 | 3 | 0 | — | 33 | 1 | |||
| Total | 73 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 81 | 3 | ||
| FC Groningen | 2014–15 | Eredivisie | 17 | 1 | 3 | 0 | — | 20 | 1 | |
| 2015–16 | 32 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 41 | 0 | ||
| 2016–17 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 3 | 0 | |||
| Total | 51 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 64 | 1 | ||
Honours
Club
- FC Groningen
- KNVB Cup: 2014–15
International
Sweden U21
- UEFA European Under-21 Championship: 2015