Burim Kukeli

Burim Kukeli (born 16 January 1984) is an Albanian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Swiss club FC Zürich and the Albania national team.

Early career

Kukeli was born in Gjakova, SAP Kosovo, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia, but moved to Switzerland at the age of four following his father road along with other part of his family. He started his youth career at age of 9 with the Solothurn youth academies. Later he was in the squad of Wangen bei Olten and SC Zofingen.

Zofingen

With Zofingen he played 21 matches and scored 4 goals during the 2004–05 season of the Swiss 3rd league. He also managed to play a full 90-minutes match, valid for the Swiss Cup against Schaffhausen, finished in the 1–5 loss.

Schötz

He moved to FC Schötz during the 2005 Summer Transfers Window. In the 2005–06 season of the 1. Liga Promotion (Swiss 3rd league) Kukeli played in total 11 matches all as a starter and in only 1 substituted off, also he scored 4 goals and where Schötz relegated to the 1. Liga Classic (Swiss 4th league) for the next season.

Kukeli missed out the entire 2006–07 season of 1. Liga Classic due to a long injury. Schötz were promoted again in the 1. Liga Promotion.

During the 2007–08 season first half Kukeli made it 14 Appearances and scored 2 goals. He played 1 match in the Swiss cup against Mendrisio, which finished in the 3–1 loss, where Kukeli himself played a full 90-minutes match.

Luzern

In January 2008 Kukeli was bought from Luzern during the Winter Transfers Window for the second half of the 2007–08 season.

Kukeli made his first professional debut at age of 23 with Luzern on Swiss Super League during the 2007–08 season. He finished his first season with Luzern with 10 matches played.

He suffered an injury which kept him out of play from the first half of the 2008–09 season. He played first match of the 2008–09 season only in the second half when he came in as a substitute in the 85th minute for Davide Chiumiento in the 2–3 loss against Young Boys on 15 February 2009. The second and last match of that season came on 30 May 2009 when he played as a starter in the 2–1 victory against Neuchâtel Xamax.

Zürich

On 15 April 2012 it was announced that Kukeli had agreed to join his former FCL coach Rolf Fringer at FC Zürich in the summer. Kukeli signed for Zürich a three-year contract until June 2015.

He made his first debut for Zürich on 15 July 2012 against exactly his latest club Luzern, in the opening match of the 2012–13 season, which finished in the 0–0 away draw and Kukeli played the full 90-minute match. He played 12 matches for the entire 2012–13 season's first half and all as a starter where substituted off only in 1 match.

Long-time injury

On 3 February 2013, Zürich were playing a test match against AC Bellinzona and in to the 72nd minute of the game, it came to a battle between Kukeli and Simon Grether, were Kukeli injured with a tibia and fibula fracture in the leg. It was named as a "horrorr" injury were his leg clearly seen with the naked eye that nearly broke away from other part and went completely in the reverse side. Player slammed into the ground, and colleagues, technical staffs of both teams, as well as over 400 fans in the stadium were shocked and the referee stopped the game immediately. After the intervention of doctors were urgently called ambulances. After about 5 minutes on the field, Kukeli stretcher was taken initially and then was transported to the hospital. After this serious incident, none of the players was not able to play, so the referee rightly canceled it. On 19 February 2013 medical doctors announced that Kukeli will remain 9 months out of the pitch until his recovery.

In January 2014, with upcoming of a fellow Albanian player in Zürich, Armando Sadiku, Kukeli returned to the team training. His first match after recovery from the long injury came on 14 January 2014, in a friendly match against MSV Duisburg but there were shown that he was still unrecovered from the injury, as he got replaced in the first half of the match. In the next month February, Kukeli declared that he was returned at this time to the full-training.

In March 2014, media reported that a wrong medication in his leg caused him an infection and he was operated again for the second time and on 28 April when he was ready to come on the pitch, doctors suggested him to undergo another operation and he came to be operated again for the 3rd time.

Due to the injury Kukeli did not played any match and even called up for the team fixtures, missing the 2012–13 season second half and also the entire 2013–14 season.

Return from the long injury

On 11 June 2014 the Zürich coach Urs Meier declared that Kukeli trained again fully with the team among his team-mate Alain Nef, also returned from the injury, also they were back on track as the two veterans recount their long injury lay-offs for us almost as inflows. On 14 June 2014 Kukeli played in the first pre-season test match of the Zürich against Vaduz coming on as a substitute for the second half in place of Ederson, where the test match finished in the 1–0 victory. On 24 June 2014 Kukeli played as a starter in another test match against Austria Lustenau finished in the 0–2 victory and where Kukeli played only in the first half as he got substituted off for Yapi in the second half.

2014–15 season

Kukeli played his first match after the long-time injury on 20 July 2014 in the opening match of the 2014–15 season against Grasshopper finished in the 1–0 victory for Zürich, where Kukeli himself gave the assist for the victory goal scored by Davide Chiumiento, also he registered a full 90-minutes match. He played another 90-minutes full match on 23 July 2014 in the next fixture match against Thun, finished in the 2–1 victory.

After a short time from the recovery, Kukeli injured once again during the match between Basel and Zürich (4–1) where according to magnetic resonance was assigned diagnosis that he damaged legs' muscle and will recover in 3 weeks. He returned soon from the injury and played as a starter in the 0–2 victory on 31 August 2014 against St. Gallen. Kukeli scored his first goal for Zürich on 5 October 2014 in the 11th game week of the 2014–15 season against Vaduz, where he scored the opening goal in the 5th minute, a goal which successed by a double-goal from Marco Schönbächler in the 15th and 24th minutes to fix the result in the 3–0 victory.

Kukeli received an invitation from Albania's coach, Gianni de Biasi in May 2012 for the friendlies against Qatar and Iran, but he declined because he was too tired at that time and needed rest after the end of the season, but however he said that he would respond positively in the future. On 24 August 2012, it was reported that the Albanian government had started the procedures to give him an Albanian citizenship by the end of August 2012, so that he could play for Albania in the qualifiers of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification. He received the Albanian citizenship on 4 September 2012 among with fellow Albanian descent Alban Meha to be eligible to play for Albania.

Debut & FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifiers

Kukeli made it his debut by playing 90 minutes in a 3–1 victory against Cyprus on 7 September 2012, match valid for the opening of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers - Group E. He played another 3 matches in a row, even valids for the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers - Group E in September and October months and also all as a starter, where the only match which he substituted off was in the 2–0 loss against Switzerland 4 days after his debut, on 15 October where his place was left for Jahmir Hyka in the 72nd minute. Then due to his long-time injury at Zürich, he missed out other matches of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers - Group E, where was and 6 matches left from 10 in total.

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers

After 2 years he returned to the national team after the injures, as he called up to play against Portugal on 7 September 2014, match valid for the start of another competition where Albania participates, the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers. He played for Albania after the long injury on 7 September 2014 in the opening match of the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers against Portugal, where he played as a starter and substituted off for Ergys Kaçe in the 66th minute as the match finished in the away 0–1 victory.

Euro 2016

On 21 May 2016, Kukeli was named in Albania's preliminary 27-man squad for UEFA Euro 2016, and in Albania's final 23-man UEFA Euro 2016 squad on 31 May.

Kukeli played as a starter in 2 first matches against Switzerland in a 0–1 loss where he played the full 90-minutes match and hosts France where they lost 2–0. He received a yellow card in each match and wasn't unable then to play in the next match against Romania where Albania took a historical 1–0 win with a goal scored by Armando Sadiku. Albania finished the group in the third position with three points and with a goal difference –2, and was ranked last in the third-placed teams, which eventually eliminated them.

Club

As of 18 July 2015

International caps

As of 7 September 2015

Club

Luzern

• Swiss Super League Runner-up: 2011–12
• Swiss Cup Runner-up: 2011–12

Zürich

• Swiss Cup: 2013–14, 2015–16