Albert Vallci ( sq, Vallçi; born 2 July 1995) is an Austrian 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 le ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

club St. Gallen.

Club career

Early career

Vallci at the age of 6, he started playing football in FC Lankowitz, where after eight years it was transferred to Kapfenberger SV. On 9 March 2013, he made his debut with Kapfenberger SV II in Matchday 16 of

Austrian Regionalliga Central The Austrian Regional League Central (german: Regionalliga Mitte) is a third-tier division of Austrian football, established in the 1994–95 season. It covers the Austrian states of Carinthia (with East Tyrol), Styria and Upper Austria and is ...

against

Villacher SV EC Grand Immo VSV are an ice hockey team in the ICE Hockey League. They play their home games at Stadthalle (capacity approximately 4500 spectators) in Villach, Austria. The team colors are blue and white. Their mascot is an eagle - Villach's co ...

after coming on as a substitute at 63rd minute in place of Michael Vollmann. After one year, Vallci made his debut on 13 May as professional footballer in a 1–0 away defeat against Liefering after being named in the starting line-up. In January 2015, he joined Austrian Regionalliga Central side SV Lafnitz.

SV Horn

On 10 June 2016, Vallci signed a two-year contract with Austrian Second League club

SV Horn SV Horn is an Austrian association football club playing in the city of Horn. The club plays in the Austrian Second League. The team was champion of the Landesliga Niederösterreich in 1991, 1998 and 2007. In 2008, SV Horn won the Austrian C ...

. On 16 July 2016, he made his debut with SV Horn in the 2016–17 Austrian Cup first round against FCM Traiskirchen after coming on as a substitute at 62nd minute in place of Milan Bortel.

Wacker Innsbruck

On 2 June 2017, Vallci signed a one-year contract with Austrian Second League club

Wacker Innsbruck FC Wacker Innsbruck was an Austrian association football club from Innsbruck, Tyrol. History The ''Fußball-Club Wacker'' ("Valiant") ''Innsbruck'' was established in 1915 by Jakob Hanspeter, Benedikt Hosp, Josef Leitner, Josef Albrecht and ...

. On 19 September 2017, he made his debut with Wacker Innsbruck in the 2017–18 Austrian Cup second round against SKU Amstetten after being named in the starting line-up.

Red Bull Salzburg

On 18 January 2019, Vallci signed a three-year contract with

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

club Red Bull Salzburg. On 21 February 2019, he made his debut with Red Bull Salzburg in the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League round of 32 against the Belgian side

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

after coming on as a substitute at 77th minute in place of injured

Marin Pongračić Marin Pongračić (; born 11 September 1997) is a Croatian footballer who plays as a defender for Italian club Lecce. He also represents the Croatia national team. Pongračić is principally a centre-back but can also play at right-back or ...

St. Gallen

On 4 August 2022, Vallci signed a three-year contract with

club St. Gallen and receiving squad number 20. Two days later, he was named as a St. Gallen substitute for the first time in a league match against

Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshop ...

International career

On 28 May 2019, Vallci received a call-up from

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

for the

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, played across Europe ...

matches against

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

and

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

, he was an unused substitute in these matches. In addition to Austria, he has the right to represent his father's homeland,

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

and his mother's homeland,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

at the international level.

Personal life

Vallci was born in

Voitsberg Voitsberg () is a small city in the district of Voitsberg in Styria, Austria, with a population of c. 9,700 . It grew upon the St. Margaret church at the Tregistbach river and was first mentioned in 1220 as Civitas. Remains of the Greisenegg ...

, Austria by Kosovo Albanian father from Mitrovica, and a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

mother.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

;Red Bull Salzburg *Austrian Champion:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

*Austrian Cup:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vallci, Albert 1995 births Living people People from Voitsberg Footballers from Styria Austrian footballers Austrian expatriate footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Austrian people of Kosovan descent Austrian people of Albanian descent Austrian people of Romanian descent Kosovan footballers Kosovan expatriate footballers Kosovan expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Association football fullbacks Austrian Regionalliga players SV Lafnitz players 2. Liga (Austria) players Kapfenberger SV players SV Horn players Austrian Football Bundesliga players FC Wacker Innsbruck players FC Red Bull Salzburg players FC St. Gallen players