Labinot Harbuzi (4 April 1986 – 11 October 2018) was a Swedish 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 ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Early life

Harbuzi's family migrated to Sweden. His father, Ismet, was a table tennis player in Kosovo. He was the cousin (aunt's son) of the Kosovar judoka

Majlinda Kelmendi Majlinda Kelmendi (; born 9 May 1991) is a Kosovan-Albanian former judoka and judo coach. In 2014, Majlinda topped the IJF Women's Prestige World Ranking List. On 7 August 2016, she became the first Kosovan athlete to win a medal at the Olymp ...

Club career

Early career

Growing up in the

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...

district

Rosengård Rosengård (literally "Rose Manor") was a city district ( sv, stadsdel) in the center of Malmö Municipality, Sweden. On 1 July 2013, it was merged with Husie, forming Öster. In 2012, Rosengård had a population of 23,563 of the municipality' ...

, he began his career with Malmö BI, the same club where

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (, ; born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AC Milan and the Sweden national team. Ibrahimović is renowned for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, powerful long-range sho ...

began his career. Being a very hot prospect in his young years, he was spotted by Swedish

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Association ...

Feyenoord

At 15 years old, he was signed by Dutch club

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club (association football), football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names bef ...

where he started playing professional football in the club's reserve team and youth team. In 2005, he was loaned to their satellite club

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

where he played 9 league games.

Malmö FF

In the spring of 2006, he returned to

and made his Allsvenskan debut that same year. In 2009, he made history when he became the first goalscorer in the then newly built

Swedbank Stadion Swedbank AB () is a Nordic-Baltic banking group based in Stockholm, Sweden, offering retail banking, asset management, financial, and other services. In 2019 Swedbank had 900,000 private and 130,000 corporate clients and a 60% market share of ...

Gençlerbirliği

On 11 July 2009, Harbuzi signed with the Turkish club Gençlerbirliği S.K. His contract with the side started in January 2010, when his contract with

expired. He has since scored 5 goals, gaining 11 assists, a promising returning for a Bosman signing. He has received great praise from Gençlerbirliği fans and head coach,

Fuat Çapa Fuat Çapa (born 15 August 1968) is a Turkish football manager. Career Çapa coached in Belgium before moving on to Turkey. His career in Belgium spanned four years as he held positions with K.V. Turnhout, K. Patro Maasmechelen, K. Beringen-Heu ...

. He left Gençlerbirliği on 20 December 2011 after coming to a mutual agreement with the club to terminate his contract.

Melaka United

Harbuzi joined

Malaysian Premier League The Malaysia Premier League ( ms, Liga Premier) was the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia. The league replaced the former second-tier league, Liga Perdana 2 in the Malaysian football league system. The Malaysia Premier Leag ...

club

Melaka United Melaka United Football Club () was a defunct Malaysian professional football club based in Malacca that competes in the Malaysia Super League. They were owned by Kenteam Sdn Bhd which is one of nitrile glove producer in Malaysia. Previously, th ...

on 13 November 2015. He missed the first 5 league matches of the 2016 season due to a pre-season injury. He made immediate impact on his first appearance for Melaka United, when he produced an assist in the 2nd minute for teammate

Ilija Spasojević Ilija Spasojević (born 11 September 1987) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for Liga 1 club Bali United and the Indonesia national team. Spasojević is known for his goalscoring ability. A prolific goalscorer, Spasojević h ...

to equalise against UiTM F.C. He went on to score a goal on his debut in the 46th minute in a match which Melaka United dominated and eventually won 3–1. He was however released by Melaka United at the end of 2016, playing only one season for the club.

International career

He was a Swedish under-21 international, making his debut against

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

on 28 February 2006. He also played in the

2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship The 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship began on 15 June 2009, and was the 17th UEFA European Under-21 Championship. This was the first tournament after the competition reverted to a two-year format, following the single-year 2006–07 compe ...

. In 2011, Harbuzi declared to the media in two different interviews that, given his ethnicity and also his feelings about being an Albanian, he desired to be part of Albania's national football team in the future and was eagerly awaiting a convocation and had been in contact with the

Albanian Football Association The Albanian Football Association ( sq, Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit; FSHF) is the governing body of football in Albania. The association is based in Tirana, Albania. It organises the national football leagues of the Albanian Superliga, the F ...

Death

On 11 October 2018, Harbuzi died. According to his friend, fellow footballer Paweł Cibicki, who met with him the previous day, Harbuzi did not show any signs of illness. During the next morning, Harbuzi suffered

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and poss ...

and was found in critical condition by his father. After his parents performed CPR, he was transported by ambulance to the hospital, where he died. Harbuzi was 32 years old.

Honours

Melaka United *

Malaysia Premier League The Malaysia Premier League ( ms, Liga Premier) was the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia. The league replaced the former second-tier league, Liga Perdana 2 in the Malaysian football league system. The Malaysia Premier Leag ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harbuzi, Labinot 1986 births 2018 deaths Sportspeople from Lund Swedish footballers Malmö FF players Feyenoord players Excelsior Rotterdam players Manisaspor footballers Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers Sweden youth international footballers Swedish people of Kosovan descent Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Malaysia Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish people of Albanian descent Kosovan expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Eerste Divisie players Süper Lig players Allsvenskan players Syrianska FC players KSF Prespa Birlik players Melaka United F.C. players Association football midfielders FC Rosengård 1917 players