Andi Zeqiri (born 22 June 1999) 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 striker for

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023 ...

club

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège ( ; ; ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most successful clubs in Belgium, having won t ...

on loan from

Genk Genk () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality comprises only the town of Genk itself. It ...

, and the Switzerland national team.

Club career

Early career and Lausanne

At the age of nine, Zeqiri started playing football for local team

Stade Lausanne-Ouchy FC Stade Lausanne Ouchy, sometimes referred to as SLO, is a Swiss football club based in Ouchy, Lausanne. They will play in the Challenge League from 2024 after relegation from Super League in 2023–24. History The club is the result of a mer ...

, where after three years he was transferred to

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

, playing with the youth teams in 24 matches and scoring 15 goals. On 22 May 2015, a month before his 16th birthday, Zeqiri made his professional debut in a 2–1 away defeat against Le Mont, coming on as a substitute in the 71st minute in place of

Anđelko Savić Anđelko Savić ( sr-Cyrl, Анђелко Савић; born 11 March 1993) is a Swiss professional footballer of Serbian descent who plays for FC Bavois as a forward in the Swiss Promotion League. Club career In 2011, he joined Sampdoria from B ...

. Zeqiri became Lausanne's youngest league debutant in this game.

Loan at Juventus

On 30 August 2016, Zeqiri joined Campionato Primavera 2 side Juventus Youth, on a season-long loan with an option to buy. On 1 October 2016, he made his debut in a 2–0 home win against

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town is best known for being the centre of the Ita ...

after coming on as a substitute in the 68th minute in place of

Moise Kean Bioty Moise Kean ( ; born 28 February 2000) is an Italian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Serie A club ACF Fiorentina, Fiorentina and the Italy national football team, Ital ...

Return from loan

On 1 July 2017, Zeqiri returned to

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

side

. On 12 August 2017, he played the first game after the return in the 2017–18 Swiss Cup first round against NK Pajde Möhlin after coming on as a substitute at 89th minute in place of

Gabriel Torres Gabriel Arturo Torres Tejada (born 31 October 1988) is a Panamanian professional footballer who plays for Tauro and the Panama national team. Career Club He was widely regarded as the top prospect from Panama and in 2007 he traveled twice t ...

Brighton & Hove Albion

On 1 October 2020, Zeqiri signed a four-year contract with

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

. He made his debut in a 1–1 home draw against

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

on 20 December coming on as a substitute in the 72nd minute. He made his first start for the "Seagulls" on 10 January 2021 in a third round

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

tie away at Newport County where Brighton won on penalties with Zeqiri being replaced in the 63rd minute. Zeqiri came on as a substitute in Brighton's 1–0 away victory over defending champions Liverpool on 3 February claiming their first league win at

Anfield Anfield is a Association football, football stadium in the area of Anfield (suburb), Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since its formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the ...

since 1982. A few months later, he came on as a substitute in another huge win, Brighton's 3–2 home victory over champions

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

on 18 May, with fans returning to football, in which they went from 2–0 down to beat City for the first time since 1989. Zeqiri scored his first Brighton goal in his first game of the 2021–22 season scoring the second in the 2–0 EFL Cup second round away win over

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

in what was also his League Cup debut.

FC Augsburg (loan)

On 30 August 2021, it was announced that Zeqiri had signed for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

side

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. T ...

on loan for the 2021–22 season. He made his debut on 11 September, coming on as a substitute in the 0–0 away draw at

Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as Union Berlin (), is a professional Football in Germany, German football club based in Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweide was fo ...

. Zeqiri scored his first goal for the club on 2 October, scoring the equaliser in an eventual 2–1 away loss against

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

FC Basel (loan)

On 2 August 2022, it was confirmed that Zeqiri had returned to his home country and joined Swiss Super League side

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

on a one season loan. He joined Basel's first team for their 2022–23 season under head coach

Alexander Frei Alexander Frei or Alex Frei (born 15 July 1979) is a Swiss professional football coach and a former player who played as a forward. He was most recently head coach of FC Aarau in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football. Fr ...

and made his debut two days later. The game was in the first leg of the third qualifying round of the

2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League The 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League was the second season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The final was played at Fortuna Arena in Prague, Czech Republic. It was won ...

, an away game on 4 August against danish club Brøndby. He scored his first goal for his new club one week later on 11 August, the return leg in the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

, as Basel won 3–1 on penalties to qualify for the next round. Zeqiri played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game on 7 August as Basel played a goalless draw against

Young Boys Bern Berner Sport Club Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation, ) is a Swiss professional sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 17 Swiss league championships and eight Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss football ...

. He scored his first league goal for them in the away game in the

Letzigrund Letzigrund () is a stadium in Zurich, Switzerland, the home of the football (soccer), football clubs FC Zürich and Grasshopper Club Zürich, as well as the Sport of athletics, athletics club . The original stadium was constructed by members of FC ...

on 28 August. In fact he scored two goals as Basel won 4–2 against

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. At the end of the season the club decided not to pull the buy out option and the player left the club. During his time with them, Zeqiri played a total of 53 games for Basel scoring a total of 18 goals. 30 of these games were in the

, three in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

, 17 in the

UEFA Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual football competition organised since 2021 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It is the thir ...

(where Basel advanced as far as the semi-finals, but here were defeated by

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

) and three were friendly games. He scored 11 goals in the domestic league, one in the cup and six in the European games.

Return to Brighton

On 24 August 2023, amidst rumors of a departure and interest from other clubs, Zeqiri returned to training with the Albion.

Genk

On 5 September 2023, Zeqiri signed for

club

on an initial three-year deal with the option for a further twelve months, for a fee reported to be around £2.4 million.

Loan to Standard Liège

On 6 September 2024, Zeqiri moved on loan to

, with an option to buy.

International career

Youth career with Switzerland

Since 2013, Zeqiri is part of

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

at youth international level, respectively part of the U15, U16, U17, U18, U19,

U20 U20 or U-20 may refer to: Naval vessels * * , a sloop of the Royal Navy * , a submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Other uses * Great truncated cuboctahedron * Meizu U20, a smartphone * Roland U-20, a synthesizer * Small nucleolar RNA S ...

and U21 teams and he with these teams played 61 matches and scored 29 goals.

Proposed Kosovo switch

On 17 June 2020, Zeqiri's father confirmed that Zeqiri had obtained the

Kosovan passport The Kosovo passport (; ) is a travel document that is issued by the Interior Ministry of Kosovo to the citizens of Kosovo to enable them to travel abroad. The passports are also used as proof of identity within the country, along with the natio ...

and will start the process of completing the necessary documents, which would allow him to play for

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

immediately after the end of the

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021) was the 23rd edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (26th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth Association ...

with Switzerland U21s. On 26 August 2020, Agim Ademi, president of

Football Federation of Kosovo The Football Federation of Kosovo (; FFK) is the governing body of football in Kosovo, with headquarters in Pristina. The Football Federation of Kosovo was established in 1946 as a branch of the Football Association of Yugoslavia, it has since be ...

, confirmed that Zeqiri was planned to be called up to Kosovo in September 2020 for the

2020–21 UEFA Nations League The 2020–21 UEFA Nations League was the second season of the UEFA Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. The competition was held from Septembe ...

matches against

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

and

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, but due to problems with documentation, could not be part of the team.

European U21 Championships

On 15 March 2021, Zeqiri was named as part of the Switzerland U21 squad for 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. He played in all three of Switzerland's group matches, including playing the whole match of the 1–0 victory over

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is the national under-21 association football team of England, under the control of the Football Association. It is considered to be the feeder team ...

as they finished third in Group D and not qualifying for the knockouts as a result.

Pledging future with Switzerland

Euro 2020 call-up

Zeqiri pledged his international career to

after he was named in Switzerland's 29-man preliminary squad for

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 quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by the Union of E ...

on 19 May 2021, this also being his first call-up for the Swiss senior side. The tournament took place in the summer of 2021, postponed from the previous year as a result of

Coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...

. He was an unused substitute in his first match day squad appearance; a 2–1 friendly win at home against the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

on 30 May 2021 in a warm up match for the Euros. A day later he was one of three players cut from the squad for the finals. He made his national debut on 1 September 2021, coming on as a substitute in the 2–1 friendly victory over

at home.

Personal life

Zeqiri was born in

, Switzerland to Kosovan parents from the village Talinoc i Muhaxhirëve of

Ferizaj Ferizaj or Uroševac,, or Uroševac sr-Cyrl, Урошевац, . Also formerly known as Ferizovići (). is a city and a municipality in Kosovo. It is the third largest city in Kosovo by population and also the seat of Ferizaj Municipality and ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Lausanne *

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 ...

: 2015–16, 2019–20

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zeqiri, Andi 1999 births Living people Footballers from Lausanne Men's association football forwards Swiss men's footballers Switzerland men's youth international footballers Switzerland men's under-21 international footballers Switzerland men's international footballers Swiss expatriate men's footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in England Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Swiss people of Kosovan descent Swiss people of Albanian descent Sportspeople of Albanian descent Kosovan men's footballers Kosovan expatriate men's footballers Kosovan expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Kosovan expatriate sportspeople in England Kosovan expatriate sportspeople in Germany Kosovan expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Swiss Challenge League players Swiss Super League players Premier League players Bundesliga players Belgian Pro League players FC Lausanne-Sport players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players FC Augsburg players FC Basel players KRC Genk players Standard Liège players 21st-century Swiss sportsmen