Valon Behrami

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Valon Behrami
Personal information
Full name	Valon Behrami
Date of birth	April 19, 1985 (1985-04-19) (age 23)
Place of birth	Mitrovica, *Kosovo
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Winger, Full back
Club information
Current club	Lazio
Number	85
Youth clubs
1993–1997 1997–2000 2000–2002	Stabio Chiasso Lugano
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2002–2003 2003–2005 2004–2005 2005–	Lugano Genoa → Verona (loan) Lazio	02 (0) 24 (0) 32 (3) 64 (4)
National team2
2005–	Switzerland	15 (2)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of May 11, 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 6 June 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Valon Behrami (born 19 April 1985 in Mitrovica, Kosovo,^[1]) is a Kosovar-Swiss midfielder currently playing professional football for S.S. Lazio of Italian Serie A. He has also been used at full back by his club. His girlfriend is italian model Elena Bonzanni.^[2]

[edit] Club career

Born to Albanian parents, as a young child Behrami moved to Stabio, a village in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, where he obtained his Swiss nationality.

Behrami started out playing football with Swiss club sides FC Stabio, FC Chiasso and FC Lugano. After a number of impressive appearances with FC Lugano, he was jointly signed by Italian teams Genoa and Udinese in the 2003–04 season, and played for Genoa in the Serie B championship. In the 2004–05 season, Genoa bought out Udinese' rights to the player and loaned him out to Hellas Verona, again in Serie B. After an impressive season with Hellas Verona, Lazio signed him in the summer of 2005. He currently wears the #85 jersey for Lazio.

Once viewed as an untransferable asset by Lazio, club president Claudio Lotito slapped a €12 million price tag for anyone considering a purchase of the winger in the January 2008 tranfer window.

Despite a clearance that hit Taddei's head and ricochetted in Lazio's goal that conceded Lazio's first goal of the match, his 92nd minute winning goal etched Behrami's name into Lazio history books as he won the Derby della Capitale on 19 March 2008 and thus dimming the Scudetto hopes for rivals A.S. Roma.

[edit] International career

Behrami has also been capped for the Switzerland national football team at the Under-18, Under-19 and "A" levels.

For the Swiss national team, Behrami scored a key goal against Turkey in the Stade de Suisse in the 1st leg of their World Cup 2006 qualifer playoff tie.

During the 2006 World Cup, he endured a groin injury which put him on the sidelines for the first two group matches. In the third match against Korea Republic, he was substituted late in the game in the 88th minute. He did not participate in the loss to Ukraine in the last 16 knockout round of matches.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Valon Behrami FIFA competition record
• (Italian) Official website of Valon Behrami
• FootballDatabase provides Valon Behrami's profile and stats

v • d • e Switzerland squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Zuberbühler • 2 Djourou • 3 Magnin • 4 Senderos • 5 Margairaz • 6 Vogel • 7 Cabanas • 8 Wicky • 9 Frei • 10 Gygax • 11 Streller • 12 Benaglio • 13 Grichting • 14 D. Degen • 15 Džemaili • 16 Barnetta • 17 Spycher • 18 Lustrinelli • 19 Behrami • 20 Müller • 21 Coltorti • 22 Hakan Yakin • 23 P. Degen • Coach: Kuhn

v • d • e Switzerland squad - UEFA Euro 2008 1 Benaglio • 2 Djourou • 3 Magnin • 4 Senderos • 5 Lichtsteiner • 6 Huggel • 7 Cabanas • 8 İnler • 9 Frei • 10 Hakan Yakin • 11 Streller • 12 Derdiyok • 13 Grichting • 14 Gygax • 15 G. Fernandes • 16 Barnetta • 17 Spycher • 18 Zuberbühler • 19 Behrami • 20 Müller • 21 Jakupović • 22 Vonlanthen • 23 P. Degen • Coach: Kuhn