Miralem Pjanić

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Miralem Pjanić
Personal information
Full name Miralem Pjanić
Date of birth April 2, 1990 (1990-04-02) (age 18)
Place of birth    Tuzla[1], SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[2]
Playing position Attacking midfielder
Club information
Current club Olympique Lyonnais
Number 12
Youth clubs
2003 – FC Metz
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
2007-2008
2008-		 FC Metz
Lyon		 32 (4)[3]   
National team
2006-2007
2008		 Flag of Luxembourg Luxembourg U-19
Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia-Herzegovina		  ? (?)
0 (0)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of April 20, 2008.
* Appearances (Goals)

Miralem Pjanić (born April 2, 1990) is a Bosnian football player who plays for Olympique Lyonnais in France. Born in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina (at the time a socialist republic within the former Yugoslavia), his family moved to Luxembourg when he was still a toddler due to the outbreak of the Bosnian war.[4]

Although he played for the Luxembourg national team's youth sides as a teenager, in 2007 he revealed that he'd continue his international career playing for Bosnia-Herzegovina instead. That same year, he became a regular for Metz and began to attract the attention of clubs such as Arsenal, Barcelona,Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, and Real Madrid.[5][6] Primarily playing as an attacking midfielder, he is often cited as one of the biggest European talents of his generation.[7]

Contents

[edit] Club Career

[edit] Metz

It has been reported [1] that various illustrious clubs in Europe have expressed interest in signing the young player, including Fenerbahçe, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, A.C. Milan, PSV, Liverpool, and Bayern Munich. However, Pjanić has stated that he would like to stay on with his current club FC Metz and it remains to be seen when he will break into the first team after the promotion of FC Metz to Ligue 1 in 2007/08. He made his first appearance in Ligue 1 during the game FC Metz-PSG, August 17, 2007.

Olympique Marseille have recently called up Miralem Pjanic to have a discussion in possible moves to the eight time Ligue 1 winning team.[2] Pjanic quotes: "My father and my manager reported to me that Olympique Marseille want to buy me. From all the leagues, my most favorable are Spanish and French leagues. The most important thing for me is to play football, and money comes later."[3]

On November 30th, 2007, Pjanić signed a 3-year contract with FC Metz.[4] He quoted on that day, "Everything went very fast for me. The club gave me a chance to prove my quality, and that was the most important thing. That's one reason I'm staying with Metz." His father explains that if he had moved to a bigger club, he would lack playing experience and would probably be benched most of the season since he was still very young at 17 years old. FC Metz proves as a great choice for the youngster since he has been in the starting lineup ever since the third day of the Ligue 1 2007-2008 season and is gaining more and more experience. [5]

[edit] Lyon

On June 6, 2008, Miralem signed a 5 year contract with Olympique Lyonnais after Lyon and Metz agreed on a transfer fee of €8 million plus incentives.[8] "I am pleased with the transfer and very happy to have come to a great club such is Lyon. I am here to win trophies and don't feel sorry to have declined other offers to be here in Gerland. Lyon has a great team which can go far in the Champions League next year." said Pjanic.

[edit] International career

[edit] Luxembourg youth teams

Pjanić played in the 2006 European Under-17 Championships for Luxembourg, for which Luxembourg had qualified automatically as hosts. He scored Luxembourg's only goal: a fantastic first time, long range, dipping effort lobbing Spanish goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo. In that same year a memorable game against Belgium ended 5-5 with Pjanic scoring 4 goals for Luxembourg.

[edit] Bosnia-Herzegovina

Around this time, Pjanić's name started to appear in Bosnian newspapers. The local media, often critical of the Bosnian-Herzegovina FA for not keeping track of the country's talents abroad, started citing his case as a possible repeat of the Zlatan Ibrahimović scenario. Soon, prominent figures in the world of Bosnian football (particularly those currently based in France) began to heap praise on Pjanić; Faruk Hadžibegić, for instance, described him as a mix of his legendary teammates Safet Sušić and Mehmed Baždarević. The media attention finally reached full-swing when Pjanić began to cement his place in the Metz first-team squad.

In an interview for a Bosnian newspaper, Pjanić insisted that he only wanted to play for Bosnia-Herzegovina.[6] Eventually, officials in the Bosnian FA took notice, and Pjanić was called up to the country's U-21 team several times.[7] He never made his debut, however, because he no longer had a Bosnian passport. A protracted 8-month ordeal took place amidst great media scrutiny. In the meanwhile, Luxembourg and France both put heavy pressure on Pjanić to play for their respective national sides (U-21 in the case of France). Finally, following the involvement of the influential BHFanaticos supporters group and BiH president Željko Komšić, Pjanić finally received his Bosnian passport in early 2008. In an interview with Bosnian tabloid SAN, he called it "the happiest moment of his life," and thanked everyone involved. He also expressed regret that he wouldn't be able to play in the same team as Sergej Barbarez and Hasan Salihamidžić (both recently retired from international football), who he had grown up watching in the BH national team.

[edit] Personal life

His family consists of father Fahrudin, mother Fatima, brother Mirza and sister Emina. They all live in Luxembourg [8].

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Najveća želja mi je da debitujem za BiH", Dnevni avaz, 2007-11-23. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  2. ^ FC METZ - Miralem PJANIC. Retrieved on 2008-04-20.
  3. ^ FC METZ - Miralem PJANIC. Retrieved on 2008-04-20.
  4. ^ "Najveća želja mi je da debitujem za BiH", Dnevni avaz, 2007-11-23. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  5. ^ "Inter Milan to pounce for Metz prospect Pjanic", Tribalfootball, 2007-11-14. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  6. ^ "Barcelona chief Txiki checked on Real Madrid target Pjanic", Tribalfootball, 2008-04-22. Retrieved on 2008-04-22. 
  7. ^ Paul Saffer. "Stars of tomorrow shine today", uefa.com, 2006-5-15. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  8. ^ Miralem Pjanic est Lyonnais

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Olympique Lyonnais – current squad

1 Lloris • 2 Clerc • 3 Cris • 4 Müller • 5 Bodmer • 6 Källström • 8 Juninho • 9 Fred • 10 Benzema • 11 Grosso • 12 Pjanić • 14 Govou • 18 Ben Arfa • 19 Delgado • 20 Réveillère • 21 Crosas • 22 Anderson • 23 Keïta • 24 Beynié • 25 Hartock • 27 Mounier • 28 Toulalan • 29 Squillaci • 30 Vercoutre • 32 Boumsong • 33 Charvet • 35 Roux • -- Ederson • Manager: Perrin