Besart Berisha

Ten months after suffering his serious knee injury, Berisha made his return to football in a pre-season friendly match in the USA against Carolina Railhawks when he came on in the 71st minute for Joey Guðjónsson.

Berisha did not exert an influence in the 20 minutes that he spent on the field having just flown to America 24 hours earlier from Albania.

The American side defeated Burnley 2–1.

The match was a 3–1 victory with Berisha coming on as a substitute in the 80th minute.

Besart Selim Berisha (born 29 July 1985) is a Kosovan professional football coach and former player who is the current assistant manager of Kosovo Superleague club Prishtina.

Berisha began his youth career at German side Berliner VB 49 academies aged nine.

He then moved to various German teams, such as Berliner FC Dynamo, TSV Lichtenberg, SV Lichtenberg 47 until 2003, when he moved to NOFV-Oberliga club Tennis Borussia Berlin, where a 17-year-old Berisha won the national youth league's golden boot, outclassing future Germany strikers, Mario Gomez and Lukas Podolski.

He stayed for just a year before being spotted by Bundesliga club Hamburger SV.

For the first half of the 2004–05 season, Berisha wasn't included in Hamburg's starting lineup for any of the matches, and for the second half he was loaned to Danish Superliga team Aalborg Boldspilklub where he spent a rather unsuccessful spell, playing only three games and scoring no goals.

The following season 2005–06 he was loaned to fellow Superliga side AC Horsens, where he scored 11 goals in 32 appearances, becoming the team's top scorer that season.

For the 2006–07 football season, he remained at Hamburg and was given his chances in the first team making his German Bundesliga debut on 12 August 2006 against Arminia Bielefeld, coming on as a substitute in the 78th minute in place of Nigel de Jong, as the match finished in a 1–1 draw.

On 6 December 2006, Berisha became the first Albanian ever to score a goal in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League by scoring his first goal for Hamburg in the match against CSKA Moscow at home in Hamburg.

Exactly 10 days later, on 16 December 2006, Berisha managed to score his first Bundesliga goal against Alemannia Aachen, as the starting striker and scoring the opening goal in the 32nd minute in the match as it finished in an away draw 3–3.

He went on to make a total 14 appearances for Hamburg in the 2006–07 season, including one in the German cup and two in the UEFA Champions League, and eleven of them as a substitute.

After the sacking of Thomas Doll and the arrival of Huub Stevens as Hamburg's new manager, Berisha was not seen as part of his plan for the team and remained on the bench for the rest of the season.

On 3 July 2007, Burnley purchased Berisha from Hamburg for £340,000, this followed his impressive performance for Albania against England B on Burnley's home ground Turf Moor.

After his performance many European clubs were interested in signing the player but Berisha was eventually signed to Burnley on a three-year deal, subject to the player being granted a work permit.

The permit was eventually granted on 3 July 2007 and the deal was completed.

Berisha was ruled out for the 2007–08 season when he picked up an injury while playing for his country in an International friendly against Malta.

It was originally believed to be a minor knock to the knee but it was later discovered that the injury was more serious and was likely to keep the player out for 5–6 weeks.

After seeing a surgeon it was further revealed that the player had in fact snapped his cruciate ligament in his knee and would not return to football for a year.

The reason that doctors had originally failed to discover the damaged ligament was due to a buildup of fluid in the knee which distorted the scans image.

He was loaned to Rosenborg in the autumn of 2008, scoring twice in his debut on 10 August 2008 against rivals Molde FK at Lerkendal Stadion in a 3–1 victory for Rosenborg.

On 21 September 2008, Berisha scored in a 4–0 victory against HamKam.

Berisha started for Rosenborg on 14 August 2008 in the first leg of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup qualifying rounds, a 2:1 loss to Djurgården, coming off in the 76th minute.

He played only the first half in the second-leg, a 5–0 home victory, as Rosenborg won 6–2 on aggregate to advance to the next round against Brøndby.

He played only in the second leg on 2 October 2008 which Rosenborg won 3–2.

Rosenborg won 5–3 on aggregate, advancing to the Group stage where they faced Saint-Étienne, Valencia, Copenhagen and Club Brugge.

Berisha played only once, against Club Brugge on 23 October 2008, coming on as a substitute in the 90th minute.

The match finished in a goalless draw.

Berisha joined AC Horsens on loan on 8 January 2009 but returned prematurely to Burnley F.C. on 26 May 2009 despite having scored some important goals for AC Horsens.

The Danish club dissolved the loan contract after an incident in training involving Berisha and Kenneth Emil Petersen.

His contract with Burnley ran until 2010, but having failed to make a single competitive start for Burnley after his return, the club announced on 31 July 2009 that Berisha would be transferred to German Bundesliga 2 team Arminia Bielefeld.

The transfer fee was believed to be £75,000.

Berisha officially joined Bielefeld on 5 August 2009.

In the 2009–10 season, Berisha finished scoreless, having made just 11 appearances, only two as a starter, since his debut on 10 August 2009 against Hansa Rostock.

He started the 2010–11 season on 22 September 2010 as a substitute in a 3–1 loss to Bochum and scored his first goal of the season on 29 September 2010 in a 1–2 loss to Union Berlin.

He finished the season with a total of 19 appearances, 12 as a starter.

In 15 matches Berisha was an unused substitute.

On 16 August 2011, Brisbane Roar manager Ange Postecoglou announced that Berisha had agreed to a one-year deal with the 2010–11 A-League champions.