Admir Mehmedi (born 16 March 1991) is a Swiss former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

second striker In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on bein ...

centre forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...

. Born in North Macedonia, Mehmedi represented the Switzerland national team. He was most recently the sporting director of

FC Schaffhausen FC Schaffhausen is a Swiss Association football, football team from the town of Schaffhausen. The club set to plays in the Promotion League from 2025–26, the third tier of Swiss football after relegation from Challenge League (Switzerland), Ch ...

Early life

Mehmedi was born in

Gostivar Gostivar ( ; sq-definite, Gostivari) is a city in North Macedonia, located in the upper Polog valley region. It is the seat of one of the larger municipalities in the country with a population of 59,770, and the town also covers . Gostivar has ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

. He is of Albanian heritage. At the age of 2, his family emigrated to Switzerland. In 2006, he moved to Zürich.

Club career

Zürich

Being a first team regular in 2010, Mehmedi established himself as a physical striker, excellent in the box as well as having a good turn of pace, he was also technically great. During his time with Zürich, Mehmedi scored nineteen goals and provided nine assists. In the January transfer window in 2012, Mehmedi moved to

Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society ...

Freiburg

On 11 July 2013, Mehmedi moved to SC Freiburg. Freiburg's acting sporting director Klemens Hartenbach stated that he was "delighted" the transfer went through. Hartenbach stated "He's a very versatile attacking player who understands the game and has already proven he can play at the highest level". On 26 May 2014, Freiburg decided to buy Mehmedi for a reported €6 million after having a good season, scoring 12 goals in 32 games during his loan spell with the Bundesliga side.

Bayer Leverkusen

On 11 June 2015, Mehmedi joined

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

after Freiburg was relegated from the Bundesliga.

VfL Wolfsburg

On 31 January 2018, Mehmedi joined

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

on a four-year deal for €8 million.

Antalyaspor and retirement

On 14 January 2022, Mehmedi signed a 2.5-year contract with Turkish club

Antalyaspor Antalyaspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional multi-sport club based in Antalya, southern Turkey. The club's colours are red and white. The association football, football side play their home matches at the Antalya Stadium. In Turkey, the cl ...

. At the end of the 2022–23 season, the forward terminated his contract with the club by mutual consent; on 30 August 2023, he publicly announced his retirement from professional football, citing his desire to spend more time with his family and pursue a coaching career as the main reasons behind his decision.

International career

Under-21

Mehmedi was a crucial member of the Swiss U-21 side in the

2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship The 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 18th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. The final tournament was hosted by Denmark between 11 and 25 June 2011. The Danish bid was chosen by UEFA's Executive Committee on 10 De ...

. Mehmedi received the silver boot with three goals in the tournament and was selected in the UEFA Euro U-21 2011 Team of the Tournament.

Senior

Mehmedi was part of the Swiss team at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. Mehmedi made his debut for the Swiss national team against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, in a

UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying The qualifying competition for UEFA Euro 2012 was a series of parallel association football competitions held across Europe between 2010 and 2011 to decide the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2012. The draw for the qualifying rounds was held on 7 Febru ...

match, coming on as a substitute. Mehmedi scored his first goal for Switzerland in his side's 5–3 win over

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The Swiss national side had not beaten the Germans since 1956. On 15 June 2014, he replaced Valentin Stocker at half time in Switzerland's opening

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

match against

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. Two minutes later, he headed in Ricardo Rodríguez's corner to equalise as Switzerland eventually won 2–1. Two years to the day after he scored in the 2014 World Cup against Ecuador, Mehmedi scored Switzerland's equaliser in their 1–1 group-stage draw against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...

. Following his participation in Switzerland's

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

campaign, in which they reached the quarter-finals for the first time, Mehmedi officially announced his retirement from the national side on 16 July 2021.

Post-playing career

Just three months after retiring as an active footballer, he joined

as their new sporting director on 5 December 2023. His mission to secure the team's place in the

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League (known as the Dieci Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the wi ...

was successful. Despite this, he requested a mutual termination of his contract on 27 May 2024, just six months after his appointment, as he could not agree with the board's proposed budget reductions.

Personal life

In 2016, Mehmedi and his father arranged to build a news house for an impoverished family in Padalište, saying: "You know, building a house is not cheap, but I appreciate what I have, and I want others to feel fine as well." Mehmedi is married with two children.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Switzerland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mehmedi goal.''

Honours

Switzerland U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

runner-up:

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

References

External links

Official WebsiteProfile
at FC Zurich Stats

at Bundesliga Official Site
A TeamU21U20U19U17U16
profiles at Swiss FA {{DEFAULTSORT:Mehmedi, Admir 1991 births Living people Sportspeople from Gostivar Men's association football forwards 21st-century Swiss sportsmen Swiss men's footballers Switzerland men's youth international footballers Olympic footballers for Switzerland Switzerland men's under-21 international footballers Switzerland men's international footballers Swiss people of Macedonian descent Macedonian men's footballers 21st-century Macedonian sportsmen Macedonian emigrants to Switzerland Albanians in North Macedonia FC Zürich players FC Dynamo Kyiv players SC Freiburg players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players VfL Wolfsburg players Antalyaspor footballers Swiss Super League players Ukrainian Premier League players Bundesliga players Süper Lig players Footballers at the 2012 Summer Olympics 2014 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2016 players UEFA Euro 2020 players Swiss expatriate men's footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Expatriate men's footballers in Ukraine Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey