Valmir Bajram Sulejmani (born 1 February 1996) is a 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 Ingolstadt 04. Born in Germany, he represents the Kosovo national team at international level.

Club career

Hannover 96

Youth career

Sulejmani started his youth career at

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

's academy at age nine. During the 2012–13 season he played for Hannover U-19 youth team in the

Under 19 Bundesliga The Under 19 Bundesliga (German: ''A-Junioren Bundesliga'') is the highest level in German Under 19 football. It was created in 2003 and is divided in three divisions (Nord/Nordost, West und Süd/Südwest) with 14 teams each. The winner of each d ...

making seven appearances and scoring one goal in 5–2 win against

Holstein Kiel Kieler Sportvereinigung Holstein von 1900 e.V., simply as KSV Holstein or Kieler SV Holstein, commonly known as Holstein Kiel (), is a German association football and sports club based in the city of Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein. From the 1900s thro ...

U-19 team on 12 May 2013. He started the 2013–14 season on 11 August 2013, playing against Rot-Weiss Erfurt U-19 in the loss 3–1. He managed to score two goals that season: the first came a week after the season's opening match, on 18 August 2013 in 4–2 win against

St. Pauli St. Pauli (Sankt Pauli; ) is a quarter of the city of Hamburg belonging to the centrally located Hamburg-Mitte borough. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the nearby Landungsbrücken is a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. ...

U-19 the second on 1 September 2013 in a 4–1 win against

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

U-19. Sulejmani finished playing the 2013–14 season with total of six appearances and two goals scored and made his debut with

Hannover 96 II Hannover 96 II is a German association football team from the city of Hannover, Lower Saxony. It is the reserve team of Hannover 96. The team's greatest success has been winning the now defunct German amateur football championship on three occa ...

on 19 October 2013 against

Victoria Hamburg SC Victoria Hamburg is a German association football club from the city of Hamburg. The football team is part of a larger sports club that has departments for badminton, handball, hockey, athletics, tennis, table tennis (playing as SG Victoria ...

playing as a starter in a 2–0 away victory.

First team

Sulejmani played on 26 October 2013 in the 9–2 defeat by Hannover 96 II of

Werder Bremen II SV Werder Bremen II is the reserve team of SV Werder Bremen. It plays in Regionalliga, the fourth level of the German football league system, and has qualified for the first round of the DFB-Pokal on nineteen occasions. It also has won the Germ ...

before he was called up to

's first team for the match against

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

on 3 November 2013, where he was an unused substitute. He made his debut for Hannover 96 at age 17, on 14 December 2013, in the match against

Nürnberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ci ...

, replacing

Artur Sobiech Artur Sobiech (; born 12 June 1990) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Lech Poznań. Club career Sobiech was born in Ruda Śląska. After spending four years at Ruch Chorzów, where he started his professional car ...

in the 74th minute. Hannover came back from 3–0 down to draw 3–3, with Sulejmani assisting on Hannover's second goal scored by

Mame Diouf Mame Biram Diouf (born 16 December 1987) is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a striker for Turkish Süper Lig club Konyaspor. Diouf started his career at Diaraf before moving to Molde in 2007. In his first season with them he ...

in 87th minute. In the next fixture against

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

on 21 December 2013, Sulejmani was included in the starting line up, playing the first half of the match before being substituted off for Artur Sobiech, as the match finished in a 2–1 loss.

=Loan to Union Berlin

= On 29 January 2015, Sulejmani was loaned to the

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

Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as 1. FC Union Berlin () or Union Berlin, is a professional German football club in Köpenick, Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweid ...

until the end of the 2014–15 season as a replacement for long injured Maximilian Thiel, rejoining head coach

Norbert Düwel Norbert Düwel (born 5 January 1968) is a German football manager who managed Laos. Coaching career In May 2014 it was announced that Düwel would replace Uwe Neuhaus as manager of Union Berlin. He was subsequently sacked on 31 August 2015. Unio ...

, who had previously been assistant coach at Hannover 96.

International

Germany

Under-17

Between 2012 and 2013, Sulejmani has played five matches for the Germany U17.

Albania

Under-21

Sulejmani revealed to the Albanian sports media that he had been in contact with

FSHF 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 Fir ...

and was available for selection by the

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

, given his Albanian background, despite having played for Germany at the youth level. On the other hand, Albania's coach,

Gianni de Biasi Giovanni "Gianni" De Biasi (, sq, Xhovani "Xhani" De Biazi), born 16 June 1956 is an Italian football coach and former player. He holds dual Italian and Albanian citizenship. De Biasi was the first coach of the Albania national team to lead th ...

, declared that Sulejmani is in his plans. On 1 August 2014, the

Albania national under-21 football team The Albania national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Albania and is controlled by the Football Association of Albania. The team competes in the European Under-21 Football Championship, which is held every two ye ...

's coach

Skënder Gega Skënder Gega (born 14 November 1963) is an Albanian retired football player and current manager. Playing career Club Gega played the majority of his career at Partizani, an Albanian team, whilst also having a two-year stint with German side ...

declared that he has invited Sulejmani to join the Albania national U21 team 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 ...

on 6 August 2014 against Qatar U-20. Two days later, on 3 August 2014, the media reported that his club Hannover 96 had not given him permission to play for the Albania U-21, but Sulejmani himself declared that he would be part of the team in future matches. On 1 October 2014, Sulejmani received another call-up from Albania under-21 for the

against Romania U21, but declined the invitation.

Kosovo

Senior

On 7 October 2015, Sulejmani received a call-up from

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 ...

for a

against

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea ( es, Guinea Ecuatorial; french: Guinée équatoriale; pt, Guiné Equatorial), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( es, link=no, República de Guinea Ecuatorial, french: link=no, République de Guinée équatoria ...

coming on as a substitute in the 57th minute for Mërgim Brahimi.

Under-21

On 5 June 2017, Sulejmani received his first call-up from the Kosovo U21 team when he was named to the starting line-up for a

2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification The 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-21 football competition that determined the 11 teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Italy in the 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tour ...

match against the Norwegian U21 team.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sulejmani, Valmir 1996 births Living people Footballers from Hanover German people of Kosovan descent German people of Albanian descent Kosovo Albanians Kosovan footballers Kosovo international footballers Kosovo youth international footballers Kosovo under-21 international footballers German footballers Germany youth international footballers Association football midfielders Association football forwards Hannover 96 players Hannover 96 II players 1. FC Union Berlin players SV Waldhof Mannheim players FC Ingolstadt 04 players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players 3. Liga players