Ermir Lenjani

Ermir Lenjani

Lenjani with St. Gallen in 2013.
Personal information
Full nameErmir Lenjani
Date of birth5 August 1989
Place of birthKaraçevë, Kamenicë, Gjilan, Kosovo
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing positionMidfielder
Club information
Current team
Rennes
Number19
Youth career
2005–2009Winterthur
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
2009–2013Winterthur96(17)
2010–2011→ Grasshopper (loan)6(0)
2013–2015St. Gallen48(2)
2015–Rennes2(0)
National team‡
2013–Albania8[1](1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14 February 2015.

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 29 March 2015

Ermir Lenjani (born 5 August 1989) is a Albanian professional footballer who plays as a Midfielder for French club Rennes [2] and for the Albanian national team.

Career

Early career

Born in Karaçevë, Kamenicë, Gjilan,[3] modern day Kosovo, Lenjani moved to Switzerland as a child where he joined the FC Winterthur academy as a teenager. He broke through into the first team during the 2009-10 season second-half.

Winterthur

On 8 March 2009 Lenjani debutted with Winterthur in the 2008–09 Swiss Challenge League match against Thun and scored the first and last goals in the 50th and 87th minutes, to give his team a 2–4 away victory.[4] 2 months after he played his next match on 16 May 2009 against Locarno and scored against a goal in the 34th minute to equal the result 1–1, where then successed by a hat-trick of 3 goal from the Croatian midfielder Tomo Barlecaj and made a 1–4 away victory which came from behind.[5] He played in another 10 matches until the end and finished the season from second-half with total of 12 appearances and 3 goals.

The next season he played the entire season, making a total of 29 appearances in which he scored 6 goals.

loan to Grasshopper

Lenjani was loaned out to Grasshopper Zürich for the first half of the 2010-11 season in order to gain experience. He made it his debut with Grasshopper on 17 July 2010 in the opening match of the 2010–11 Swiss Super League against Neuchâtel Xamax where he came in as a substitute in the 74th minute in place of Steven Lang and the match finished in the 1–1 draw.[6] Lenjani scored 2 goals in a 0–12 destruction over Gumefens/Sorens valid for the 2010–11 Swiss Cup.[7]

He played 6 league matches in total for Grasshopper.

return from loan to Grasshopper

He returned to FC Winterthur for the second-half remaining season and established himself as a first team player. He made it 14 league appearances where scored 4 goals.

In the 2011–12 Swiss Challenge League he played 25 matches and scored 2 goals.

He started another league campaign, the 2012–13 Swiss Challenge League. He played 16 matches and scored 2 goals in the first-half of the season.

St. Gallen

He joined Swiss Super League side FC St. Gallen in January 2013.

Lenjani gave two assist to give the victory 2–1 St. Gallen against Luzern on 3 August 2014 in a match which came from behind of the 0–1 result in the first half, thanks to Lenjani's assists in the 78th minute for the goal scored by Marco Mathys and for the another goal scored by Džengis Čavušević in the 90+3rd minute.[8]

Rennes

While during the Winter Transfers Window German and Italian media talked about agreement reaching with Stuttgart or Verona, on 6 January 2015 Lenjani signed with the French team of Rennes, after he passed successfully the medical examination.[9]

He made it his first debut on 13 January 2015 playing as a starter in the 2014–15 Coupe de la Ligue - Quarter-finals match against Bastia, in where Lenjani left the team with 9 players on the pitch as he received a red card in the 76th minute.[10] Lenjani made it his first league debut on 7 February 2015 by coming on as a substitute in the 71st minute for Pedro Henrique in a 1–1 draw against Olympique de Marseille.[11]

International career

Lenjani first announced his desire to represent Albania internationally in January 2013, when he began the procedure to gain Albanian citizenship through his Albanian ethnicity. He was called up by Gianni De Biasi for a friendly against Armenia in August 2013 but did not feature in the game.[12][13] Lenjani received his Albanian citizenship on October 8, 2013.[14] He made his debut on 15 November 2013 in a friendly match against Belarus finished 0-0. He received an call up for next friendly match on 5 March 2014 against Malta.[15] He scored his first international goal 11 October 2014 against Denmark at UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers in the 38th minute of the match, which ended as a 1–1 draw.[16]

Career statistics

Club

As of 14 February 2015 [17][18]
Season Club League country League League Cup Europe Total
AppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
2008–09 Winterthur Swiss Challenge League 12300--123
2009–10 29610--306
2010–11 Grasshopper Swiss Super League 60??2--62
Total 60??20062
2010–11 Winterthur Swiss Challenge League 14400--143
2011–12 25230--282
2012–13 16200--162
Total 9617400010017
2012–13 St. Gallen Swiss Super League 7000--70
2013–14 2923080402
2014–15 12020--140
Total 4825080612
2014–15 Rennes Ligue 1 2020--40
Total 20200040
Career total 152191128017121

International stats

As of 29 March 2015
Albania national team [17][19]
YearAppsGoals
201310
201461
201510
Total81

International goals

Scores and results list Albania's goal tally first.
# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 11 October 2014 Elbasan Arena, Elbasani, Albania  Denmark 1–0 1–1 UEFA Euro 2016 Qualification

References

External links