Pajtim Kasami

Pajtim Kasami (born 2 June 1992) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Italian club Sampdoria.

Born in Zürich, Switzerland to an ethnic Albanian family from Struga, North Macedonia, Kasami started his career in 2003 with Swiss club Winterthur before he joined Grasshoppers in Zürich in 2006.

In the same year, he also briefly played for Liverpool on loan.

On 2 February 2009, at age 16, he moved to Lazio in the Italian Serie A.

At the start of the 2009–10 season, Kasami was reported absent without leave and was due to play for the reserves that season.

In December 2009, Kasami returned to Switzerland to play for Bellinzona, signing a contract until 2011.

He made his professional debut in March after his free transfer was cleared by Swiss Football Association.

Lazio terminated his contract after Kasami failed to appear on several training sessions in the youth teams or first team, and it was due to his indiscipline that Lazio did not want to buy his rights from Grasshopper.

On 7 June 2010, Palermo announced they had signed the midfielder in a five-year contract from Bellinzona.

Despite his young age, he was immediately included in the first team and made his debut with a rosanero jersey as a second-half substitute in the first leg of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League play-off against Maribor.

He then made his Serie A debut later on 30 August, playing the entire home league game against Cagliari, which ended in a 0–0 draw.

He concluded the season with 24 appearances: 14 in the league, 8 in Europa League and 2 in Coppa Italia.

Zamparini hailed Kasami as "the new Pastore".

On 25 July 2011, Kasami signed for Fulham on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee.

He made his début for Fulham as a late substitute in the 0–0 draw in their Europa League clash with RNK Split.

He was later in the starting line-up versus Dnipro on 18 August 2011, playing for 88 minutes and was greatly involved in the set up of all the 3 goals.

Kasami made his Premier League début on 21 August 2011 against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Molineux Stadium.

Fulham lost the match 2–0.

Kasami almost joined Pescara on loan on 1 January 2013, but the move could not be finalised in time due to a bad internet connection.

Kasami joined Luzern on loan until the end of the 2012–13 season on 15 February 2013.

He made his debut in the 4–0 away defeat to St. Gallen on 24 February 2013.

He scored his first goal for Luzern in the 4–3 away victory over Servette FC in the final game of the 2012–13 season on 1 June 2013.

Following his loan spell with Luzern came to an end, Manager Martin Jol revealed Kasami took a fifty per cent cut of his wage to stay at the club.

He scored Fulham's first goal of the 2013–14 Premier League season in a 1–0 away victory against Sunderland.

Kasami then scored his second goal of the season against Crystal Palace on 21 October; a dipping volley from the edge of the area, in a match that eventually ended a 4–1 away win to Fulham.

This goal was nominated for the FIFA Puskás Award for the best goal of the year, the only one nominated from the Premier League.

A third was added with a deflected free kick in a 2–1 win at Norwich on 26 December 2013.

It was announced on 9 July 2014 that Kasami had signed for Olympiacos for a fee of €5 million.

On 23 August 2014, he netted his first goal in his official debut as a player of Olympiacos in a 3–1 home win against Niki Volou.

He scored again on 30 August 2014 against Panetolikos in a 1–1 away draw.

On 22 October 2014, Olympiacos pulled off one of the surprises of the Champions League night when they beat Juventus 1–0 in Piraeus with a first-half goal from Kasami.

After a successful 2014–15, which ended with double conquest, several reports in Italy are keep insisting that Kasami was likely to move to a Serie A club and it is believed that Fiorentina or Inter were the most favourable destination.

Despite serious interest from Fiorentina, Bayer Leverkusen and lately from Roma, Kasami did not complete his transfer on the deadline day.

On 22 February 2015, Kasami experienced one of the most traumatic shocks in his life after the derby against Panathinaikos.

On 11 March 2015, Olympiakos's Portuguese coach Vitor Pereira and Kasami were fined for their behavior after the team's Greek Cup quarter-final 1–0 win over AEK Athens.

The disciplinary committee of the Greek soccer federation fined Pereira €9,000 and Kasami was ordered to pay €7,000 for making gestures to the crowd which incited trouble.

He scored his first goal for the 2015–16 season in a hammering 5–1 win against PAS Giannina.

On 2 October 2015, media source stated that Olympiacos' former manager Vitor Pereira and midfielder Kasami were prosecuted for provoking episodes in the Greek Cup semi final against AEK Athens.

The Deputy Prosecutor Giorgos Lainis prosecuted Kasami and Vitor Pereira.

Αt the same time, the Football prosecutor former Sports Prosecutor Konstantinos Simitzglou had begun preliminary examination by calling witnesses in order to combine his case with the prosecution.