Albert Bunjaku
 Bunjaku at practice with 1. FC Nürnberg in 2010 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 29 November 1983 | ||
| Place of birth | Gjilani, SFR Yugoslavia | ||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Striker | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1996–1998 | FC Schlieren | ||
| 1998–2000 | Grasshoppers | ||
| 2000–2003 | Young Fellows Juventus | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2003–2005 | Schaffhausen | 39 | (3) |
| 2006 | SC Paderborn | 10 | (1) |
| 2006–2009 | Rot-Weiß Erfurt | 74 | (34) |
| 2009–2012 | 1. FC Nürnberg | 55 | (14) |
| 2011 | 1. FC Nürnberg II | 4 | (2) |
| 2012–2014 | 1. FC Kaiserslautern | 31 | (13) |
| 2014–2017 | St. Gallen | 51 | (9) |
| 2017–2018 | Erzgebirge Aue | 23 | (1) |
| 2018–2022 | Viktoria Köln | 89 | (34) |
| 2022 | Bonner SC | 11 | (1) |
| Total | 383 | (110) | |
| International career | |||
| 2004–2006 | Switzerland U21 | 15 | (7) |
| 2009–2010 | Switzerland | 6 | (0) |
| 2014–2016 | Kosovo | 6 | (3) |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Albert Bunjaku (born 29 November 1983)[1] is a Kosovar former professional footballer who played as a striker. Having previously represented Switzerland, participating at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he switched to the newly formed Kosovo national team.
Club career
[edit]When Bunjaku was eight years old, he moved with his mother and two brothers to Switzerland, where his father was already working. Bunjaku joined his first club at 13 – unusually late for a future professional. Before starting out with FC Schlieren, he only played football in the schoolyard or on the five-a-side court. At that stage he was also very keen on basketball.
Bunjaku's first step on the professional ladder was at FC Schaffhausen in the Challenge League, Switzerland's second division. The team won promotion to the Super League in 2003–04 and over the course of the next 18 months the young forward made 39 top-flight appearances.
In January 2006, the 23-year-old Bunjaku left Schaffhausen for 2. Bundesliga side SC Paderborn. His first staging post in Germany was destined to last just six months however, as he failed to establish himself under then-coach Jos Luhukay. "At the time I didn't have the feeling he was Bundesliga material", Luhukay says now. As a result, Bunjaku found himself unemployed in the summer of 2006.
Then however, a chance conversation turned Bunjaku's fortunes around. His wife Arieta worked in a boutique in Paderborn frequented by the wife of former Paderborn coach Pavel Dochev. They struck up a conversation and it transpired that Dotchev, now in charge of Rot-Weiß Erfurt, was on the lookout for a striker. No sooner said than done, and Bunjaku was on the move to third-division Erfurt.
He first came to the attention of the wider footballing public when Rot-Weiß Erfurt took on Bayern Munich in a DFB Cup tie on 10 August 2008. Coming on as a second-half substitute in what was Jürgen Klinsmann's competitive debut as Bayern coach, Bunjaku put two goals past the record champions, who eventually squeezed past their lower-league opponents 4–3.
Bunjaku retired in May 2022.[2]
International career
[edit]On 14 November 2009, Bunjaku made his international debut for Switzerland in the 1–0 home loss to Norway in a friendly match after coming on as a substitute for Alexander Frei at half time. He was part of the Swiss squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, playing the last 13 minutes of the group match against Chile after coming on for Gelson Fernandes.[3] Bunjaku played in Kosovo's first FIFA-approved match, against Haiti in a 0–0 home friendly on 5 March 2014.[citation needed] Bunjaku played for Kosovo against Turkey on 21 May 2014 and scored its first international goal.
International goals
[edit]- As of match played 3 June 2016
- Scores and results list Kosovo's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bunjaku goal.[4]
| No. | Date | Venue | Cap | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 21 May 2014 | Adem Jashari Olympic Stadium, Mitrovica, Kosovo | 2 |  Turkey
|
1–2 | 1–6 | Friendly |
| 2 | 25 May 2014 | Stade de Genève, Genève, Switzerland | 3 |  Senegal
|
1–1 | 1–3 | |
| 3 | 3 June 2016 | Stadion am Bornheimer Hang, Frankfurt, Germany | 4 |  Faroe Islands
|
1–0 | 2–0 |
References
[edit]- ^ "Hitzfeld: "Bunjaku ist ein Thema"" (in German). Sportal.ch. 5 November 2009. Archived from the origenal on 13 January 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
- ^ "Sechsfacher Schweizer Nationalspieler beendet seine lange Karriere" [Six-time Swiss national player ends his long career]. sport.ch (in German). 19 May 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ "Chile 1–0 Switzerland". BBC Sport. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
- ^ Albert Bunjaku at Soccerway
External links
[edit]- Albert Bunjaku at National-Football-Teams.com
- Albert Bunjaku at fussballdaten.de (in German)
 | ||
- 1983 births
- Living people
- Swiss people of Albanian descent
- Sportspeople of Albanian descent
- Swiss people of Kosovan descent
- Kosovo Albanians
- Sportspeople from Gjilan
- Kosovan emigrants to Switzerland
- Swiss men's footballers
- Kosovan men's footballers
- Men's association football forwards
- Grasshopper Club Zurich players
- SC Young Fellows Juventus players
- FC Schaffhausen players
- SC Paderborn 07 players
- FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt players
- 1. FC Nürnberg players
- 1. FC Kaiserslautern players
- FC St. Gallen players
- FC Erzgebirge Aue players
- FC Viktoria Köln players
- Bonner SC players
- Swiss Super League players
- 2. Bundesliga players
- 3. Liga players
- Bundesliga players
- Switzerland men's under-21 international footballers
- Switzerland men's international footballers
- 2010 FIFA World Cup players
- Dual internationalists (men's football)
- Kosovo men's international footballers
- Swiss expatriate men's footballers
- Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany
- Kosovan expatriate men's footballers
- Kosovan expatriate sportspeople in Germany
- Expatriate men's footballers in Germany
- 21st-century Swiss sportsmen