Adonis Afrim Ajeti (born 26 February 1997) is a Swiss 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 plays as a defender for

Swiss Promotion League The Promotion League, named the Hoval Promotion League for sponsorship reasons, is the third tier of the Swiss football league system. Eighteen clubs compete in the league, playing each other twice over course of the season. The champions are prom ...

club

Rapperswil-Jona Rapperswil-Jona is a municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of See-Gaster in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Besides Rapperswil and Jona, which were separate municipalities until 2006, Rapperswil-Jona also includes Bollinge ...

. He is the twin brother of

Albian Ajeti Albian Afrim Ajeti (born 26 February 1997) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a striker for Swiss Super League club Basel. He has previously played for FC Basel (two spells), FC Augsburg, St. Gallen, West Ham United, Celtic, Stur ...

and the younger brother of

Arlind Ajeti Arlind Afrim Ajeti (born 25 September 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Süper Lig club Bodrum. Born in Switzerland, he represents Albania at international level. Early life Ajeti was born in Basel, Switzerland, ...

. Adonis holds dual citizenship, the Swiss where he was born and grew up and the Albanian citizenship due to his parents' origin.

Club career

Early career

The Ajeti twins started their youth football with Basel in 2005, at the same time as their elder brother moved to the club from Concordia. In the 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons Adonis played in Basel's U-16 and with the team he twice became Swiss Champion at this level. During the 2012–13 season he also played in their U-18 team. On 30 April 2013, the twin brothers both signed their first professional contracts with the club, thus also becoming part of their first team. During the 2013–14 season he was called into their U-21 team.

Basel

Ajeti made his professional debut with Basel in the closing match of the

2015–16 UEFA Europa League group stage The 2015–16 UEFA Europa League group stage was played from 17 September to 10 December 2015. A total of 48 teams competed in the group stage to decide 24 of the 32 places in the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League knockout phase, knockout phase of the ...

against

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation's highest division. ...

on 10 December 2015 coming on as a substitute at half-time in place of Michael Lang in a 0–1 away victory. He became the last of the brothers to make a professional debut also with Basel. Due to absence of

Marek Suchý Marek Suchý (born 29 March 1988) is a Czech professional Association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back for FK Mladá Boleslav, Mladá Boleslav and former captain of the Czech Republic national football team, Czech Republic nationa ...

injured and since Basel had already secured the qualification to the

knockout phase A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

, the coach Urs Fischer invited him to participate in the match.

Wil

Following his professional debut with Basel, Ajeti continued his professional career at

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 ...

club

FC Wil 1900 FC Wil (''Fussball Club Wil 1900'') is a football club based in Wil, Switzerland. They play in the ''Sportpark Bergholz'', which has a total capacity of 6,048. The club has consistently played in the Swiss second tier since regaining promotion ...

, where he signed on 7 February 2016 a contract until 30 June 2020.

Rapperswil-Jona

On 7 July 2023, Rapperswil-Jona announced the signing of Ajeti.

International career

Ajeti played in several friendly matches with Switzerland national under-15 football team during the spring 2012 under the coach Yves Débonnaire including a full 80-minutes match against Belgium under-15 in where he played as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

and scored a goal in a 5–3 win. Later in the same year in autumn and again under the same coach he captained

Switzerland national under-16 football team The Switzerland national under-16 football team is the national under-16 football team of Switzerland, which is controlled by the Swiss Football Association. History The team acted as the feeder team of Switzerland national under-17 footbal ...

in three friendly matches. He continued in 2013 captaining

Switzerland national under-17 football team The Switzerland national under-17 football team is the national under-17 football team of Switzerland and is controlled by the Swiss Football Association. The team competes in the UEFA European Under-17 Championship and the FIFA U-17 World C ...

in two friendly matches in August against Germany and Austria. Then in 2015 he played for

Switzerland national under-18 football team The Switzerland national under-18 football team is the national under-18 football team of Switzerland and is controlled by Swiss Football Association. Players Current squad The following players were called up for the friendly matches against ...

in a double friendly match against England on 26 and 28 March where he scored a goal.

Personal life

Despite having been born in and grown up in Switzerland, all "Ajeti brothers" have a good knowledge of the

Albanian language Albanian (Endonym and exonym, endonym: , , or ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid, Albanoid branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan languages, Paleo-Balkan group. It ...

, the language of their parents, as they have always communicated in Albanian at home.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ajeti, Adonis 1997 births Swiss twins Footballers from Basel-Stadt Swiss people of Albanian descent Sportspeople of Albanian descent Living people Swiss men's footballers Albanian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Switzerland men's youth international footballers FC Basel players FC Wil players FC St. Gallen players FC Chiasso players Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players 21st-century Swiss sportsmen 21st-century Albanian sportsmen