Blendi Idrizi (born 2 May 1998) is a Kosovan 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 most recently played as a attacking midfielder for Schalke 04. Born in Germany, he plays for the Kosovo national team.

Club career

Early career and return to Blau-Weiß Friesdorf

Idrizi at the age of 13 started playing football in Blau-Weiß Friesdorf, where after one year it was transferred to Bonner SC. He besides being was part of Bonner SC, he was part even of TSC Euskirchen (2014–2015) and

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballspi ...

(2015–2017). In the 2017–18 season, Idrizi returns to his former team, Blau-Weiß Friesdorf, but now as a senior team's player and scores 16 goals in 25 games.

Alemannia Aachen

On 14 May 2018, Idrizi joined Regionalliga West side

Alemannia Aachen Alemannia Aachen () or ATSV Alemannia 1900 is a football in Germany, German football club from the western city of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. A long term fixture of the country's 2. Bundesliga, second division, ''Alemannia'' enjoyed a three- ...

. On 29 July 2018, he made his debut in a 2–1 away defeat against Viktoria Köln after coming on as a substitute at 58th minute in place of Mahmut Temür.

Fortuna Köln

On 25 June 2019, Idrizi joined Regionalliga West side

Fortuna Köln Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at ...

. On 10 August 2019, he made his debut in a 1–1 home draw against

Wattenscheid 09 SG Wattenscheid 09 is a German association football club located in Wattenscheid, Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club claimed an official founding date of 18 September 1909 as Ballspiel-Verein Wattenscheid out of the merger of two earlier ...

after being named in the starting line-up.

Schalke 04

On 29 January 2020, Idrizi joined Regionalliga West side Schalke 04 II. Three days later, he made his debut in a 2–0 home win against his former club Bonner SC after coming on as a substitute in the 74th minute in place of Jason Ceka. On 12 May 2021, Idrizi made his

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

debut in a 2–1 away defeat against

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charl ...

, starting the match before being substituted off in the 77th minute for Steven Skrzybski. Three days after debut, he scored his first goal for Schalke 04 in his second appearance for the club in a 4–3 home win over

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

in Bundesliga.

Loan to Jahn Regensburg

On 30 August 2022, Idrizi 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 Jahn Regensburg on a season-long loan.

International career

Under-21

On 22 May 2017, Idrizi received a call-up from Kosovo U21 for a three-day training camp. On 9 October 2019, he received again a call-up from Kosovo U21 for the

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 Albania U21, and made his debut after coming on as a substitute in the 88th minute in place of Gezim Pepsi.

Senior

On 25 May 2021, Idrizi received a call-up from Kosovo for the friendly matches against San Marino and Malta. Seven days later, he made his debut with Kosovo in a friendly match against San Marino after being named in the starting line-up.

Personal life

Idrizi was born in Bonn, Germany to Kosovo Albanian parents from

Gjilan Gjilan, or Gnjilane ( sr-cyr, Гњилане) is the eighth largest city in Kosovo and seat of Gjilan Municipality and Gjilan District. Name Ottoman chronicler Evliya Çelebi mentions ''Morava'' as a settlement of the Sanjak of Vučitrn. � ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Schalke 04 *

: 2021–22

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Idrizi, Blendi 1998 births Living people Footballers from Bonn Men's association football midfielders Kosovan men's footballers Kosovo men's under-21 international footballers Kosovo men's international footballers Kosovan expatriate men's footballers Kosovan expatriate sportspeople in Germany German men's footballers German people of Kosovan descent German people of Albanian descent Sportspeople of Albanian descent Alemannia Aachen players SC Fortuna Köln players FC Schalke 04 II players FC Schalke 04 players SSV Jahn Regensburg players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players