Albert Bunjaku (born 29 November 1983) is a professional footballer who plays as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for German club Bonner SC. Having previously represented

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, participating at the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

, he switched to the newly formed Kosovo national team, for which he was the former all-time top scorer with three goals.

Club career

When Bunjaku was eight years old, he moved with his mother and two brothers to Switzerland, where his father was already working. Bunjaku joined his first club at 13 – unusually late for a future professional. Before starting out with FC Schlieren, he only played football in the schoolyard or on the five-a-side court. At that stage he was also very keen on basketball. Albert Bunjaku

Bunjaku's first step on the professional ladder was at

FC Schaffhausen FC Schaffhausen is a Swiss football team from the town of Schaffhausen. The club plays in the Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football. Honours League Swiss Challenge League *Winners: 1962-63, 2003–04 Cup Swiss Cup *Runners-up: ...

in the Challenge League, Switzerland's second division. The team won promotion to the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

in 2003–04 and over the course of the next 18 months the young forward made 39 top-flight appearances. In January 2006, the 23-year-old Bunjaku left Schaffhausen for 2. Bundesliga side

SC Paderborn Sport-Club Paderborn 07 e.V., commonly known as simply SC Paderborn 07 () or SC Paderborn, is a German association football club based in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has enjoyed its greatest successes since the turn of the mille ...

. His first staging post in Germany was destined to last just six months however, as he failed to establish himself under then-coach Jos Luhukay. "At the time I didn't have the feeling he was Bundesliga material", Luhukay says now. As a result, Bunjaku found himself unemployed in the summer of 2006. Then however, a chance conversation turned Bunjaku's fortunes around. His wife Arieta worked in a boutique in Paderborn frequented by the wife of former Paderborn coach Pavel Dochev. They struck up a conversation and it transpired that Dotchev, now in charge of Rot-Weiß Erfurt, was on the lookout for a striker. No sooner said than done, and Bunjaku was on the move to third-division Erfurt. He first came to the attention of the wider footballing public when Rot-Weiß Erfurt took on

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

in a DFB Cup tie on 10 August 2008. Coming on as a second-half substitute in what was Jürgen Klinsmann's competitive debut as Bayern coach, Bunjaku put two goals past the record champions, who eventually squeezed past their lower-league opponents 4–3.

International career

On 14 November 2009, Bunjaku made his international debut for

in the 1–0 home loss to Norway in a friendly match after coming on as a substitute for

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 is currently the manager of Basel. He began his career at Basel, going on to various other clubs in Switzerlan ...

at half time. He was part of the Swiss squad for the

, playing the last 13 minutes of the group match against Chile after coming on for

Gelson Fernandes Gelson da Conceição Tavares Fernandes (born 2 September 1986) is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Club career FC Sion Fernandes started his football career at FC Sion when he first joined the club ...

. Bunjaku played in Kosovo's first FIFA-approved match, against Haiti in a 0–0 home friendly on 5 March 2014. Bunjaku played for Kosovo against Turkey on 21 May 2014 and scored its first international goal.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Kosovo's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bunjaku goal''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bunjaku, Albert 1983 births Living people Swiss people of Albanian descent Swiss people of Kosovan descent Kosovo Albanians People from Gjilan Kosovan emigrants to Switzerland Swiss men's footballers Kosovan footballers Association football forwards Grasshopper Club Zürich players SC Young Fellows Juventus players FC Schaffhausen players SC Paderborn 07 players FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt players 1. FC Nürnberg players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players FC St. Gallen players FC Erzgebirge Aue players FC Viktoria Köln players Bonner SC players Swiss Super League players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Bundesliga players Switzerland under-21 international footballers Switzerland international footballers 2010 FIFA World Cup players Dual internationalists (football) Kosovo international footballers Swiss expatriate footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Kosovan expatriate footballers Kosovan expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany