Berat Djimsiti

Berat Djimsiti
Personal information
Full name Berat Ridvan Djimsiti (Albanian: Berat Ridvan Gjimshiti)
Date of birth (1993-02-19) 19 February 1993
Place of birth Zürich, Switzerland
Height 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position Defender
Club information
Current team
 Atalanta
Number 55
Youth career
–2007 Zürich-Affoltern
2007–2012 Zürich
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
2009–2012 Zürich II 45 (6)
2011–2016 Zürich 110 (5)
2016– Atalanta 1 (0)
National team‡
2011 Switzerland U18 3 (0)
2011–2012 Switzerland U19 9 (0)
2013–2014 Switzerland U21 5 (0)
2015– Albania 6 (1)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 10 January 2016.
† Appearances (goals)

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 7 September 2015

Berat Ridvan Djimsiti (Albanian: Berat Ridvan Gjimshiti, born 19 February 1993) is an Albanian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Italian club Atalanta (formerly Zurich) and the Albania national team.

Club career

Early career

Djimsiti was born in Zürich, Switzerland into an ethnic Albanian family from the village of Bujanovac in Southern Serbia. He started his youth career at FC Zürich-Affoltern where he stayed until 2007, when he moved to FC Zürich academies at the age of 14.[1]

Zürich

Djimsiti gained access to the first team in the 2011–12 Swiss Super League season, when he was benched in the 2–1 victory against Young Boys on 19 April 2011.[2] That was his only bench time with the first team during the 2011–12 season.

Djimsiti got a good achievement participating with the first team in the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League play-off round match against Bayern Munich on 17 August 2011.[3] He made his first professional debut during on March 3, 2012 against Sion, coming on as a substitute in the 84th minute and replacing Heinz Barmettler in a 0–1 loss.[4]

Djimsiti scored his first goal for Zürich on 20 May 2012 against Grasshopper, where he played as a starter and scored in the 75th minute to give his team the 0–1 away victory.[5] Those were the only matches for the entire season.

He became regular starting the 2012–13 season.[6]

Atalanta

On 18 January 2016, Djimsiti signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with Serie A side Atalanta, taking the vacant number 55 for the second part of 2015–16 season.[7][8]

International

Djimsiti became a youth national player of Switzerland as he was called up for the first time at Switzerland national under-18 football team making his debut on April 5, 2011 in a friendly match and then played in other 2 matches.

Djimsiti was then called up from the Switzerland national under-19 football team for the 2011 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification and made his debut against Montenegro U19 on 5 June 2011, playing the full 90- minutes match in a 2–2 win.[9] Djimsiti also participated in the next tournament for U-19, the 2012 UEFA European Under-19 Championship playing in all 6 matches.

Following his good performances at U-19 side, he became part of the Switzerland national under-21 football team. He participated in two consecutive UEFA European Under-21 Championship, in the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship where he was called up in 4 occasions, remaining in all as an unused substitute and the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship playing in 2 out 6 matches.[10]

Albania

According to the Swiss media reporting in September 2014, he will soon receive a call-up from Albania.[11] The news was confirmed by Djimsiti himself, who explained that he had been contacted by the Albanian coach, Gianni De Biasi.[12] In September 2014 Djimsiti refused also Kosovo, letting them know that he intends to play for Albania.[13] On 20 September 2014, procedures to give Djimsiti the Albanian citizenship were started.[14] Djimsiti received the Albanian citizenship on 15 July 2015 by the president of Albania, Bujar Nishani, along two other Albanian footballers, the twin brothers part of the fellow Swiss club Basel, Albian Ajeti and Adonis Ajeti.[15] In July 2015 Djimsiti confirmed definitively that he had decided to play for Albania.[16][17] On 27 August 2015 Djimsiti among two other Albanian descents players which switched from Swiss youth international footballers to Albanian international footballers, Arlind Ajeti and Naser Aliji, received the go ahead from FIFA which allowed them to play for Albania also in the competitive matches such as UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying.[18]

Since he became eligible to represent Albania in international competitive level, Djimsiti received his first call-up at Albania by coach Gianni De Biasi for the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying matches against Denmark and Portugal on 4 and 7 September 2015 respectively.[19] He made it his first international debut with Albania on 4 September 2015 against Denmark playing as a Right back due to the absence also of Elseid Hysaj injured and completed the full 90-minutes match to help Albania taking 1 point with a goalless draw.[20] He played as a Centre back on October 8, 2015 against Serbia and on October 11 against Armenia, in which he scored his first goal in the 23rd minute.

Career statistics

Club

As of 30 August 2015[10]
Season Club Division League League Cup Europe Total
AppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
2009–10 Zürich II 1. Liga Promotion 20----20
2010–11 275----275
Zürich Swiss Super League 1000--10
2011–12 Zürich II 1. Liga Promotion 161----161
Total Zürich II 4560000456
Zürich Swiss Super League 21000021
2012–13 34050--390
2013–14 2613020311
2014–15 3323071433
2015–16 70002090
Total Zürich (1st team) 10341101111255
Career total 1481011011117011

International

As of 7 September 2015 [21]
Albania national team
YearAppsGoals
201531
Total31

Honours

Club

Zürich

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, May 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.