Miralem Sulejmani

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Miralem Sulejmani
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Sulejmani training with Ajax in 2010
Personal information
Full name Miralem Sulejmani
Date of birth (1988-12-05) 5 December 1988 (age 35)
Place of birth Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia
Height Script error: No such module "person height".
Position(s) Winger
Team information
Current team
 Young Boys
Number 7
Youth career
BSK Batajnica
2000–2005 Partizan
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2005–2006 Partizan 1 (0)
2007–2008 Heerenveen 34 (15)
2008–2013 Ajax 103 (29)
2013–2015 Benfica 15 (1)
2015– Young Boys 15 (5)
International career‡
2007–2010 Serbia U21 19 (6)
2008– Serbia 18 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 5 December 2015
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 11 october 2015

Miralem Sulejmani (Serbian Cyrillic: Миралем Сулејмани, pronounced [sulějmani]; born 5 December 1988) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Swiss club Young Boys and the Serbia national team.

When he signed for Ajax in 2008, he became the most expensive football player to have ever been purchased by a Dutch club.[1] Over the course of seven seasons he amassed Eredivisie totals of 137 games and 44 goals. In 2013 he moved to Benfica where he won five major titles in two years.

Personal life

Sulejmani was born in Batajnica, Belgrade. He is of ethnic Gorani descent (from Gora in southern Kosovo). His paternal family moved to Batajnica in 1948. His father also played football, for OFK Beograd and GSP Poleta. His favourite players are Thierry Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo. His best friend is Danko Lazović.[2] In 2010, he met his girlfriend Vesna Mušović.[3] He became a father to a son in October 2011.[4]

Club career

Partizan

Sulejmani was born in Belgrade, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. His father Miljaim played at OFK Beograd, and the son's first club was local FK BSK Batajnica, before he moved to FK Partizan at the age of 11 to complete his formation.

Sulejmani made his first appearance for the seniors in the 2005–06 season, aged 17, and quickly drew interest from Dutch clubs AZ Alkmaar, FC Groningen and SC Heerenveen; additionally, he also spent time at farm team FK Teleoptik.

Heerenveen

On 6 December 2006 Sulejmani signed for Heerenveen with the transfer being made effective in January of the following year. The move was controversial, with several arguments occurring between the Dutch side and his agent. Eventually Partizan, after a meeting with the Football Association of Serbia, suspended the player until 11 May 2007, keeping him out for the rest of the season; Heerenveen appealed to FIFA afterwards and, although the original verdict claimed that he should not be suspended, a second look at the case was made and he was banned again.[5]

File:Miralem-Sulejmani.jpg
Sulejmani as a Heerenveen player.

Sulejmani made his official debut with the Friesland team in the 2007–08 campaign, against Willem II on 17 August 2007 (0–0 draw). He scored his first Eredivisie goal the following match, but his team lost 1–4 at AFC Ajax; proffiting from the departure of Afonso Alves to Middlesbrough in January 2008, he finished the campaign with 15 goals to rank joint-fifth in the scoring charts, helping his team to the fifth position and the subsequent qualification to the UEFA Cup.

Ajax

After weeks of speculation, AFC Ajax announced that it had reached an agreement for the transfer of Sulejmani. The Amsterdam club paid €16.25 million to Heerenveen, breaking the Dutch transfer-record of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar which dated from 2005 – the player signed a five-year contract, stating "I am a footballer and I only want to think about football".[6]

Sulejmani netted ten official goals in his first year with Ajax, including two in seven contests in the campaign's UEFA Cup as the club reached the round-of-16. On 18 February 2010, for the same competition, he scored after a marvellous individual play in a 1–2 home loss to Juventus, also the final round-of-32 aggregate score.[7]

File:Free kick Sulejmani.jpg
Sulejmani taking a free kick with Ajax.

On 11 August 2010, West Ham United confirmed that they had agreed terms with Ajax and Sulejmani to take him on a year-long loan subject to the granting of a work permit,[8][9] which was denied the following day.[10] He continued to display solidly in the following two seasons, scoring 19 goals in 54 appearances combined en route to back-to-back national championships.

On 4 March 2012, in a match against Roda JC, Sulejmani was seriously injured after 30 minutes. Two days later the Ajax medical team has determined that he would have to undergo surgery to the meniscus, going on to miss the rest of the season.[11] In February of the following year, it was reported that he was set to join S.L. Benfica as a free agent;[12][13][14] after this was confirmed, coach Frank de Boer demoted him to the reserves, where he remained until the end of his tenure.[15]

Benfica

Several days after the initial reports of the deal with Benfica appeared, it was finally confirmed that Sulejmani, along with countryman Filip Đuričić, passed medical tests and agreed to a five-year contract effective as of July 2013.[16][17] Legendary Predrag Mijatović praised his countryman's abilities.[18]

Sulejmani made his Primeira Liga debut on 25 August, coming in midway through the second half of a 2–1 home win against Gil Vicente FC. He scored his first official goal for his new club on 15 December, netting the 3–2 winner at S.C. Olhanense and again featuring as a substitute.

On 30 December 2014, seven months later after his injury in the Europa League final, Sulejmani made his comeback, as a substitute, against Nacional in the third round of league cup.

Young Boys

On 9 June 2015, Benfica announced that Sulejmani had joined Swiss club Young Boys.[19]

International career

Sulejmani was named in Zvonko Živković's 18-man squad for the 2007 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship. On 7 September 2008 he converted two penalties for the under-21s in their 8–0 demolition of Hungary in a qualifying match for the 2009 European Championships.[20]

Sulejmani made his debut for the senior team on 6 February 2008, in a friendly with Macedonia in Skopje. He netted his first international goal on 12 September 2012, against Wales for the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers (6–1 win).[21]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 9 May 2015[22]
Club Season League Cup Europe1 Other2 Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Partizan 2005–06 1 0 0 0 0 0 — 1 0
Heerenveen 2006–07 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 0
2007–08 34 15 2 1 2 0 0 0 38 16
Total 34 15 2 1 2 0 — 38 16
Ajax 2008–09 27 8 0 0 7 2 — 34 10
2009–10 17 2 4 0 10 1 — 31 3
2010–11 32 8 6 3 14 2 1 0 53 13
2011–12 22 11 1 0 8 1 1 0 32 12
2012–13 5 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 8 0
Total 103 29 13 3 40 6 2 0 158 38
Benfica 2013–14 11 1 2 1 10 0 3 1 26 3
2014–15 4 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 7 0
Total 15 1 5 1 10 0 3 1 33 3
Career total 153 45 20 5 52 6 5 1 230 57

1 Includes UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup / Europa League matches. 2 Includes Johan Cruijff Shield and Taça da Liga matches.

International

International appearances

As of 11 October 2015
Serbia
Year Apps Goals
2008 3 0
2009 3 0
2010 1 0
2011 0 0
2012 5 1
2013 3 0
2014 1 0
2015 2 0
Total 18 1

International goals

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 11 September 2012 Karađorđe Stadium, Novi Sad, Serbia  Wales 6–1 6–1 2014 World Cup qualification

Honours

Club

Ajax
Benfica

Individual

References

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  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Sulejmani marca pelas reservas (Sulejmani scores for reserves); Record, 20 February 2013 (Portuguese)
  16. ↑ Benfica: Sulejmani e Djuricic assinam por cinco anos (Benfica: Sulejmani and Djuricic sign for five years); Diário Digital, 23 February 2013 (Portuguese)
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

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