Valon Berisha

Valon Berisha
	Berisha with Red Bull Salzburg in 2017
Personal information
Full name	Valon Berisha
Date of birth	7 February 1993 (age 31)
Place of birth	Malmö, Sweden
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Club information
Current team	LASK
Number	14
Youth career
1998–2009	Egersund
Senior career*
Years	Team
2009	Egersund
2009–2012	Viking
2012–2018	Red Bull Salzburg
2018–2020	Lazio
2020	→ Fortuna Düsseldorf (loan)
2020–2023	Reims
2022	Reims B
2022–2023	→ Melbourne City (loan)
2024–	LASK
National team‡
2010	Norway U15
2009	Norway U16
2010	Norway U17
2010	Norway U18
2011	Norway U19
2011–2014	Norway U21
2013	Norway U23
2012–2016	Norway
2016–	Kosovo
Honours
Representing Norway
European Under-21 Championship
	* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 4 May 2024; ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 12 September 2023

Valon Berisha (born 7 February 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Austrian Bundesliga club LASK and the Kosovo national team.

Career

Berisha was born in Stockholm. His family is of Albanian origin. They moved from Kosovo to Sweden before he was born. His younger brother Veton also plays professional football for Viking Stavanger in Norway. He started football at the local club Egersunds IK. On 20 June 2008, when he was 15 years old, he played his first senior match for EIK against Staal Jørpeland IL in the Norwegian Third Division. His good performance attracted the interest of Viking Stavanger, a top club of Norway. He signed with them in March 2009. In July 2012 Berisha went on to Red Bull Salzburg together with his fellow Norwegian Håvard Nielsen. Unlike Nielsen he was soon part of the starting team of Salzburg.

International career

Valon Berisha was part of every youth national team in Norway. For the Under-17, U-19 and U-21 teams he played 29 games and scored 3 goals. With the U-21 he played in the European Under-21 Championship 2013 in Israel and reached the semifinal. His first match in the senior team was on January 15, 2011. It was a friendly match against Denmark League XI (unofficial national football team run by the Danish Football Association).

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 9 April 2022^[2]^[3]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club	Season	League			National Cup		Continental		Total
Club	Season	Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Viking	2010	Tippeligaen	12	1	3	0	—		15	1
	2011		28	3	4	2	—		32	5
	2012		16	0	1	0	—		17	0
	Total		56	4	8	2	—		64	6
Red Bull Salzburg	2012–13	Austrian Bundesliga	30	6	3	0	—		33	6
	2013–14		32	5	3	3	12	0	47	8
	2014–15		14	4	3	0	2	0	19	4
	2015–16		33	5	6	1	4	0	43	6
	2016–17		34	7	3	0	9	1	46	8
	2017–18		24	4	3	2	18	7	45	13
	Total		167	31	21	6	45	8	233	45
Lazio	2018–19	Serie A	8	0	1	0	5	0	14	0
	2019–20	Serie A	3	0	1	0	4	0	8	0
	Total		11	0	2	0	9	0	22	0
Fortuna Düsseldorf (loan)	2019–20	Bundesliga	13	0	0	0	—		13	0
Reims	2020–21	Ligue 1	24	0	1	0	2	1	27	1
	2021–22	Ligue 1	13	0	1	0	—		14	0
	Total		37	0	2	0	2	1	41	1
Career total			284	35	33	8	56	9	373	52

International

As of match played 12 September 2023^[4]

Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Norway	2012	8	0
	2013	3	0
	2014	2	0
	2015	3	0
	2016	4	0
Total		20	0
Kosovo	2016	4	1
	2017	6	0
	2018	4	0
	2019	6	2
	2020	6	0
	2021	5	0
	2022	5	1
	2023	4	0
Total		40	4

International goals

As of match played 2 June 2022^[5]

Scores and results list Kosovo's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Berisha goal.


No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref.
1.	5 September 2016	Veritas Stadion, Turku, Finland	Finland	1–1	1–1	2018 FIFA World Cup qualification	^[6]
2.	10 September 2019	St. Mary's Stadium, Southampton, England	England	1–0	3–5	UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying	^[7]
3.	10 September 2019	St. Mary's Stadium, Southampton, England	England	2–5	3–5	UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying	^[7]
4.	2 June 2022	AEK Arena – Georgios Karapatakis, Larnaca, Cyprus	Cyprus	1–0	2–0	2022–23 UEFA Nations League C	^[8]