Mërgim Berisha (born 11 May 1998) is a German 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for club

TSG Hoffenheim Turn- und Sportgemeinschaft 1899 Hoffenheim e.V., or simply TSG 1899 Hoffenheim or just Hoffenheim () is a German professional football club based in Hoffenheim, a village of Sinsheim municipality, Baden-Württemberg. Originally founded in 1899 ...

and the Germany national team.

Club career

Liefering

On 7 November 2014, Berisha made his debut as a professional footballer against

Mattersburg Mattersburg (; formerly ''Mattersdorf'', hu, Nagymarton, Croatian: ''Matrštof'') is a town in Burgenland, Austria. It is the administrative center of the District of Mattersburg and was home to former Bundesliga football team, SV Mattersburg. ...

after coming on as a substitute at 73rd minute in place of Daniel Ripić and just 50 seconds after his substitution scored his side's third goal during a 3–1 home win.

Red Bull Salzburg

On 28 December 2016, Berisha signed his first professional 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 ...

side Red Bull Salzburg after agreeing to a four-year deal. On 3 April 2017, he made his debut in a 0–5 away win against

SC Rheindorf Altach Sportclub Rheindorf Altach, also known as Rheindorf Altach, SCR Altach or simply SCRA, is an Austrian association football club based in Altach, Vorarlberg. It plays in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club is currently also known as CASHP ...

after coming on as a substitute at 77th minute in place of Wanderson. Berisha helped his team winning the

2016–17 UEFA Youth League The 2016–17 UEFA Youth League was the fourth season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA. Chelsea were the title holders after winning the previous two editions. However, since the UEFA Youth Le ...

by being one of the top scorers in the tournament, scoring seven goals in total.

Loan at LASK

On 21 August 2017, Berisha joined

side

LASK Linzer Athletik-Sport-Klub, commonly known as Linzer ASK () or simply LASK, is an Austrian professional Football team, football club, from the Upper Austria, Upper-Austrian state capital Linz. It is the oldest football club in that region, and pl ...

, on a season-long loan. Five days later, he made his debut in a 1–0 away defeat against Rapid Wien after being named in the starting line-up.

Loan at 1. FC Magdeburg

On 19 June 2018, Berisha joined

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

side

1. FC Magdeburg 1. FC Magdeburg is a German association football club based in the city of Magdeburg. The club was founded in 1965 and spent all but one season in East Germany top flight, the DDR-Oberliga, winning three championships and seven cup titles. It ...

, on a season-long loan. Two months later, he made his debut with 1. FC Magdeburg in the 2018–19 DFB-Pokal first round against

Darmstadt 98 Sportverein Darmstadt 1898 e.V., commonly known as Darmstadt 98 (), is a German football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club was founded on 22 May 1898 as FC Olympia Darmstadt. Early in 1919, the association was briefly known as ''Rasen-Sp ...

after coming on as a substitute at 81st minute in place of Tobias Müller.

Loan at SC Rheindorf Altach

On 10 January 2019, Berisha joined

side

, on a -season loan. On 23 February 2019, he made his debut in a 0–0 away draw against

Wolfsberger AC Wolfsberger AC, commonly referred to as Wolfsberg or simply WAC, is an Austrian association football club from Wolfsberg, Carinthia, who currently play in the Austrian Bundesliga. Between the 2007–08 and 2011–12 seasons, Wolfsberger AC enter ...

after being named in the starting line-up.

Return to Red Bull Salzburg

=2019–20 season

= On 6 January 2020, Berisha returned to

side Red Bull Salzburg. On 14 February 2020, he played the first game after the return in a 2–3 home defeat against former club

after coming on as a substitute in the 59th minute in place of

Patrick Farkas Patrick Farkas (born 9 September 1992) is an Austrian professional footballer who plays for TSV Hartberg. Club career FC Red Bull Salzburg After spending the entirety of his career with SV Mattersburg since his debut in 2009, Farkas joined ...

=2020–21 season

= On 13 September 2020, Berisha commenced his season with the club by winning in the opening match of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

against

after being named in the starting line-up. On 3 November, Berisha scored his first

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

goal in a 2–6 defeat against German side

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 the 2020–21 season, he also scored in the away tie in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

as Salzburg lost 3–1. On 1 December, Berisha scored two goals against Russian side Lokomotiv Moscow, which allowed Red Bull Salzburg to win the match in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

3–1, to secure third place in the group and reach the

2020–21 UEFA Europa League knockout phase The 2020–21 UEFA Europa League knockout phase began on 18 February with the round of 32 and ended on 26 May 2021 with the final at Stadion Miejski in Gdańsk, Poland, to decide the champions of the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League. A total of 32 team ...

. On 1 May 2021, Berisha scored Salzburg's opening goal in a 3–0 win against his former club LASK in the final of the

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

, securing the club's third straight domestic cup title.

Fenerbahçe

On 2 September 2021, Berisha signed a four-year contract with

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

club Fenerbahçe and received squad number 11.

Loan at FC Augsburg

On 31 August 2022, Berisha joined

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded as ...

on loan with an option to buy.

FC Augsburg

On 2 July 2023, Fenerbahçe announced that FC Augsburg had triggered the buy-option and acquired Berisha permanently, for a fee reported to be around €4 million.

TSG Hoffenheim

On 30 August 2023, Bundesliga club

announced the signing of Berisha on a four-year contract, for a reported fee of €14 million.

International career

On 7 October 2019, Berisha received a call-up from Germany U21 for the

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against Spain U21 and

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification The 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-21 footballtournament that determined the 14 teams that would be joining the automatically qualified co-hosts Hungary and Slovenia in the 2021 UEFA European Unde ...

match against Bosnia and Herzegovina U21. Three days later, he made his debut with Germany U21 in a friendly match against Spain U21 after coming on as a substitute at 46th minute in place of

Janni Serra Janni-Luca Serra (born 13 March 1998) is a German professional footballer who plays as a forward for 2. Bundesliga club Arminia Bielefeld. Career Early career Janni-Luca Serra was born in Springe, Lower Saxony, and began playing soccer in t ...

. On 17 March 2023, he received his first official call-up to the German senior national team for the

friendlies An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

and

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Personal life

Berisha was born in

Berchtesgaden Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps, south of Berchtesgaden; the ...

, Germany, to Kosovo Albanian parents from Suhareka.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Red Bull Salzburg Youth * UEFA Youth League: 2016–17 Red Bull Salzburg *

: 2016–17, 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

: 2016–17, 2019–20,

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berisha, Mërgim 1998 births Living people Sportspeople from Berchtesgaden Footballers from Upper Bavaria German men's footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's international footballers German people of Kosovan descent Men's association football forwards FC Liefering players FC Red Bull Salzburg players LASK players SC Rheindorf Altach players 1. FC Magdeburg players FC Augsburg players Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers TSG 1899 Hoffenheim players 2. Liga (Austria) players Austrian Football Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Süper Lig players Bundesliga players German expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Austria German expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey German expatriate sportspeople in Turkey