Dardan Rexhepi (born 16 January 1992) is a 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. He was raised in Sweden and played for their youth football teams before playing for the senior Kosovo national team.

Club career

Malmö FF

Rexhepi moved from

Lunds BK Lunds BK is a football club from Lund, Sweden founded in 1919. The club currently plays in Division 1 Södra. Despite their relative success Lunds BK has never competed in the Allsvenskan or Superettan, but has played nine seasons in the secon ...

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening (), commonly known simply as Malmö FF or MFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö, Scania. They compete in the Allsvenskan, the top division of Swedish football, and play home matches at the Eleda S ...

in 2009. After scoring 38 goals in 43 games for the youth team he was promoted to the first team squad the following year. In his debut match for the first team against

Syrianska FC Syrianska Football Club, also known as Syrianska FC or simply Syrianska, is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Södertälje in Stockholm County. The club was founded by Aramean people, Syriac-Aramean immigrants ...

Svenska Cupen Svenska cupen (, ), also known as the Swedish Cup in English, is a knockout cup competition in Swedish football and the main Swedish football cup. ''Svenska cupen'' usually refers to the men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also ...

on 18 May 2010 he scored the winning goal in extra time. On 15 September the same year he started his first match in Allsvenskan in the derby and top-match against

Helsingborgs IF Helsingborgs Idrottsförening, commonly referred to as Helsingborgs IF, Helsingborg or (especially locally) HIF (), is a Swedish professional football club located in Helsingborg. They play in the Swedish second tier, Superettan, following releg ...

in which he also scored his first league goal, which proved to be the winning goal as Malmö FF won 2–0, the second goal in the same game was assisted by Rexhepi. The win against Helsingborg would prove to be crucial for the championship as Malmö FF won the league a few games later only 2 points more than Helsingborg. He has since earned the nickname "D-Rex". Rexhepi had a minor breakthrough for the 2011 season and played 23 matches and scored one goal. He also played for the club in the qualifying stages to the

2011–12 UEFA Champions League The 2011–12 UEFA Champions League was the 57th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 20th season in its current Champions League format. As part of a trial that started in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa Lea ...

and in the group stage of the

2011–12 UEFA Europa League The 2011–12 UEFA Europa League was the third season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 41st edition overall including its predecessor, the UEFA Cup. It began on 30 June 2011 with ...

. The 2012 season proved to be a tougher challenge for Rexhepi as he received less play than the previous season. In total Rexhepi played 13 out of 30 matches for Malmö FF during the season and walked away goalless in league play. Rexhepi played 17 matches and scored one goal during the league title winning 2013 season, however he was still the third choice attacker behind

Magnus Eriksson Magnus Eriksson (April or May 1316 – 1 December 1374) was King of Sweden from 1319 to 1364, King of Norway as Magnus VII from 1319 to 1355, and ruler of Scania from 1332 to 1360. By adversaries he has been called ''Magnus Smek'' (). Medi ...

and Tokelo Rantie in the beginning of the season and then Eriksson and

Guillermo Molins Guillermo Federico Molins Palmeiro (; born 26 September 1988) is a Swedish professional footballer. Beginning his career with Malmö FF in 2006, he has gone on to play professionally in Belgium, Spain, China, Greece, and Norway. A full interna ...

in the end of the season.

IF Brommapojkarna

On 21 January 2014, Rexhepi signed for fellow Allsvenskan club

IF Brommapojkarna Idrottsföreningen Brommapojkarna, more commonly known as Brommapojkarna (meaning ''the Bromma boys'') or simply BP, is a Swedish association football, football club based in the borough of Bromma, in the western parts of Stockholm municipality ...

, citing that he needed more time on the pitch to continue develop as a player. Malmö FF acknowledged that a buy-back agreement existed in the transfer and that they would follow Rexhepi's development in Brommapojkarna.

BK Häcken

In January 2015, Rexhepi signed for Allsvenskan club

BK Häcken Bollklubben Häcken, more commonly known as BK Häcken or simply Häcken (), is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Gothenburg (Hisingen). It currently plays in Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. Forme ...

Norrby IF

After two years without any club, Rexhepi signed a one-year contract with

Norrby IF Norrby IF is a Swedish professional football club based in Borås. Founded on 27 April 1927, the club is currently competing in the Superettan. Background The club's best achievement was being promoted to Allsvenskan (top level of Swedish foo ...

for the 2019 season. The striker did not represent any club at the elite level from 2017 to 2018, as he instead wanted to invest in a civil career and, among other things, worked for a couple of weeks this summer as a municipal director in

Kungsbacka Kungsbacka () is a urban areas of Sweden, locality and the seat of Kungsbacka Municipality in Halland County, Sweden, with 19,057 inhabitants in 2010. It is a part of Greater Gothenburg Metropolitan Area. It is one of the most affluent parts of Sw ...

International career

Rexhepi made his debut for Sweden U21 on 24 March 2011 in a training match against Italy U21. He made his senior debut 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 ...

in a May 2014

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and earned a total of 3 caps, scoring no goals. His final international was a September 2014 friendly against

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

Career statistics

:''As of 6 October 2013.''

Honours

Club

;Malmö FF *

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Svenska Supercupen Svenska Supercupen, ''Swedish Super Cup'', was a one-off fixture in Swedish football played between the Allsvenskan champions and the winners of Svenska Cupen. The fixture was played in November, after the Allsvenskan season. In the event of a ...

References

External links

*
Malmö FF profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rexhepi, Dardan 1992 births Living people Footballers from Pristina Swedish people of Albanian descent Swedish people of Kosovan descent Men's association football forwards Kosovan men's footballers Kosovo men's international footballers Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Malmö FF players IF Brommapojkarna players BK Häcken players GAIS players Norrby IF players Allsvenskan players Superettan players 21st-century Swedish sportsmen