Naser Aliji

Naser Ismail Aliji (born 27 December 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Romanian Liga I club Voluntari.

Aged 9, he moved to FC Aarau for one year and then he joined FC Basel in 2008.

Later he played in their U-18 team and in their U21 team where he received various individual prizes as the youngster of the year.

Aliji signed his first professional contract with FC Basel on 20 June 2013 and joined their first team.

Aliji made his first team debut on 17 August as he was substituted in during the Swiss Cup first round match against BSC Old Boys.

At the end of the 2013–14 Super League season Aliji won the league championship with Basel.

They also reached the final of the 2013–14 Swiss Cup, but were beaten 2–0 by Zürich after extra time.

During the 2013–14 Champions League season Basel reached the group stage and finished the group in third position.

Thus they qualified for the Europa League knockout phase where they advanced as far as the quarter-finals.

He played his first match in the starting eleven in the Swiss Cup quarter-final against Le Mont on 5 February 2014 as Basel won 6–1.

One minute before half time he gave the final pass to Marco Streller for him to score the third goal of the game.

On 16 March 2014 Aliji made his Swiss Super League debut and played the full 90 minutes at St. Jakob-Park in the 5–0 home win, against Aarau.

The season 2014–15 was also a successful one for Basel.

Aliji scored his first goal for the team in the away game in the Stadion Brügglifeld on 19 July 2014 as Basel won 2–1 against Aarau.

Despite this goal in the first match of the season and despite the fact that Basel had entered the Champions League in the group stage reaching the knockout phase on 9 December 2014 as they managed a 1–1 draw at Anfield against Liverpool, Aliji totaled just 17 appearances during the first half of the season, 5 (of 18) League, 3 (of 3) in the Cup and just 1 (of 6) in the Champions League, as well 8 further appearances in test games, mostly as substitute.

Because Sousa did not rely upon Aliji and he could not make the starting eleven Basel looked for another solution.

Having won the 2014–15 Liechtenstein Cup, Vaduz gained the right to participate in the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League first qualifying round, where they were shorted to play against San Marino side La Fiorita.

In the first leg, Aliji played the full 90-minutes match in a crucial away 0–5 victory.

Then Vaduz qualified in the next round beating La Fiorita 5–1 in the second leg and winning on aggregate 10–1.

Born in Macedonia, he played for Switzerland at youth international levels, and made his senior debut for Albania in 2015.

Aliji was born in Kumanovo and is of Albanian ethnicity.

He lived there until he was four years old, at which time his mother moved to Baden, Switzerland together with her two other siblings, a sister and a brother, to join their father, who had been working there for many years.

Aliji started his youth football aged 4 when he was sent by his brother to play with FC Baden.

On 17 January 2015 it was announced that Aliji would be lent out to Vaduz to gain first team playing experience.

At the end of the season Basel won the championship for the sixth time in a row.

In January 2015 during the Winter transfers window, Aliji was loaned out to the fellow Swiss Super League team FC Vaduz for 1 year and half.

Aliji made his debut for Vaduz on 15 February 2015 in the away match against Aarau, playing the full 90 minutes of the game, which ended in a 1–0 victory.

Until the end of the league season Aliji played 17 matches all as a starter and substituted off in just one occasion.

Aliji won the 2014–15 Liechtenstein Cup playing two matches including the final against Triesenberg on 13 May 2015 when Vaduz won 5–0 and Aliji played the full 90-minutes.

Vaduz finds as an opponent in the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League Second qualifying round the Estonia side Nõmme Kalju.

Aliji managed to play another full 90-minutes European match in the first leg to help his team to take a 3–1 victory.

Following an injury to Adama Traoré with the Ivory Coast national football team due to the absence of other left-backs, Basel used the contract rights to recall Aliji to their first team squad from the loan to Vaduz.

Under trainer Urs Fischer Aliji won the Swiss Super League championship at the end of the 2015–16 Super League season for the third time.

On 1 July 2016 Basel announced that Aliji was leaving the club and would move to Germany.

During his time with their first team, Aliji played a total of 64 games for Basel scoring one goal.

21 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, nine in the Swiss Cup, four in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 22 were friendly games.

He scored his sole goal in the domestic league.

On 1 July 2016, Aliji joined 2. Bundesliga side 1. FC Kaiserslautern on a free transfer, signing a contract until June 2019.

He should have compensated for the departure of Chris Löwe on the left side of defence.

For the club it was the seventh title in a row and their 19th championship title in total.