Albert Bunjaku

Albert Bunjaku

Personal information
Full name	Albert Bunjaku
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	1. FC Nuremberg
Number	10
Youth career
1996-1998	FC Schlieren
1998-2000	Grasshopper-Club Zürich
2000-2003	SC Young Fellows Juventus
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2003-2005	Schaffhausen	39	(3)
2006	Paderborn	10	(1)
2006-2009	Rot-Weiss Erfurt	74	(34)
2009-	1. FC Nuremberg	35	(13)
International career‡
2004-2006	Switzerland U-21	15	(7)
2009-	Switzerland	2	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 27 May 2010 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 27 May 2010

Albert Bunjaku (born 29 November 1983 in Gnjilane) is a Swiss football player of Kosovar Albanian descent, who currently plays for 1. FC Nuremberg.

Career

When Albert Bunjaku was eight years old, he moved with his mother and two brothers to Switzerland, where his father was already working. Bunjaku joined his first club at 13 - unusually late for a future professional. Before starting out with FC Schlieren, he only played football in the schoolyard or on the five-a-side court. At that stage he was also very keen on basketball.

"I actually always used to play right back in the early days. At some point I was transformed into a striker and that worked out very well. I feel at home up front, I think it's a good position for me and I always try to give it 100 percent", Bunjaku says in summary of his career to date.

Bunjaku's first step on the professional ladder was at FC Schaffhausen in the Challenge League, Switzerland's second division. The team won promotion to the Super League in 2003-04 and over the course of the next 18 months the young forward made 39 top-flight appearances.

In January 2006, the 23-year-old Bunjaku left Schaffhausen for 2. Bundesliga side SC Paderborn. His first staging post in Germany was destined to last just six months however, as he failed to establish himself under then-coach Jos Luhukay. "At the time I didn't have the feeling he was Bundesliga material", Luhukay says now. As a result, Bunjaku found himself unemployed in the summer of 2006.

Then however, a chance conversation turned Bunjaku's fortunes around. His wife Arieta worked in a boutique in Paderborn frequented by the wife of former Paderborn coach Pavel Dochev. They struck up a conversation and it transpired that Dotchev, now in charge of Rot-Weiß Erfurt, was on the lookout for a striker. No sooner said than done, and Bunjaku was on the move to third division Erfurt.

He first came to the attention of the wider footballing public when Rot-Weiß Erfurt took on FC Bayern Munich in a DFB Cup tie on August 10th 2008. Coming on as a second-half substitute in what was Jürgen Klinsmann's competitive debut as Bayern coach, Bunjaku put two goals past the record champions, who eventually squeezed past their lower-league opponents 4-3.

International career

When coach Ottmar Hitzfeld recently decided to include Bunjaku in the Swiss national squad, he called him up on his mobile to impart the news. Not recognising the number, the forward didn't answer. Nürnberg coach Michael Oenning subsequently informed him that he was set for international recognition - and now he knows Hitzfeld's number.

On 14 November 2009, Bunjaku made his international debut for Switzerland in the 0:1 home loss to Norway in a friendly match after coming on as a substitute for Alexander Frei at half time. He is part of the Swiss squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.