Xherdan Shaqiri

Xherdan Shaqiri (born 10 October 1991) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a winger for Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire and the Switzerland national team.

Shaqiri rose through the youth ranks at FC Basel.

In his three years playing for the Basel first-team, he was an important player in the team that won three Swiss Super League titles.

He emigrated to Switzerland in 1992 with his parents and three siblings.

His brother, Arianit Shaqiri, is a youth football coach.

They settled in Augst, a small town in the canton of Basel-Country, near the French and German borders.

His father did not speak Swiss German, so he had to start out washing dishes in a restaurant, before working construction on roads.

His mother worked as a cleaner in office buildings in the city, with which he and his brothers helped.

His father would send as much money back to Kosovo to other family members as he could, meaning Xherdan and the family did not have extra spending money, except for birthdays.

He idolised Brazilian striker Ronaldo, who he said played "like magic".

Shaqiri started his career at hometown club SV Augst, and at the age of eight he was scouted by FC Basel.

Whilst playing for Basel's youth team, he competed in the Under-15 Nike Cup 2007 and was named the best player of the tournament.

Despite having several other clubs attempting to sign him, he decided to stay with Basel, where he played for their reserve team from 2007 to 2009 in the Swiss 1. Liga.

Two years later, Shaqiri signed his first professional contract with Basel on 2 January 2009, with the new contract keeping him at St. Jakob-Park until December 2011.

Shaqiri made his Basel club debut as a substitute on 12 July 2009 in Basel's 2009–10 season opening match against FC St. Gallen at the AFG Arena.

Four months later he scored his first goal for Basel in a 4–1 win over Neuchâtel Xamax at home on 9 November 2009.

At the end of the 2009–10 season Shaqiri won the national Double with Basel, and a year later won the league title again.

A full international since 2010, Shaqiri has earned 114 caps and scored 27 goals for Switzerland, making him the country's third most capped player and sixth-highest goal-scorer.

He represented the nation at the 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, as well as UEFA Euro 2016 and UEFA Euro 2020.

Shaqiri was born in Zhegër, Gjilan, SFR Yugoslavia, to Kosovar Albanian parents.

In December 2011, Shaqiri provided two assists in a match against Manchester United, with Basel winning 2–1.

At the end of the 2011–12 season, for the second time in his Basel stint, he won the Double, consisting of the League title, and the Swiss Cup.

He moved to Bayern Munich in 2012, where he won three Bundesliga titles in his three seasons at the club.

He faced stiff competition at Bayern and did not nail down a first-team spot.

On 9 February 2012, Basel announced that Shaqiri had accepted a transfer to German club Bayern Munich of the Bundesliga for the 2012–13 season.

On 10 July 2012, Shaqiri made his debut in a 1–0 friendly win against Bavarian neighbours SpVgg Unterhaching.

His first competitive appearance for the club came on 20 August in a DFB-Pokal match at SSV Jahn Regensburg, as a half-time substitute.

He scored Bayern's second goal as well as providing assists for Mario Mandžukić and Claudio Pizarro, with Bayern winning 4–0.

He helped Bayern secure the top spot in their 2012–13 UEFA Champions League group by scoring a goal and providing assists in a 4–1 defeat of BATE Borisov on 5 December, winning the man of the match award and avenging their defeat in Minsk.

Shaqiri did not score his first Bundesliga goal until the final league match of the 2012 calendar year, rescuing a point for them in a 1–1 draw with Borussia Mönchengladbach, leaving Bayern in first place at the winter break.

Although he did not play in the final, Shaqiri won the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League title with Bayern, as well as the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal title, making him one of the Bayern Munich players to have won the first treble in club history; he added the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup to his achievements that year.

On 16 April 2013, Shaqiri also scored in the DFB-Pokal semi-final against VfL Wolfsburg with a long-range shot.

By June 2014, Shaqiri was reported to be the most decorated Swiss footballer of all time at just 22, with 13 medals to his name.

In January 2015, he moved to Inter Milan for a fee of €15 million.

After half a season at Inter, he moved to Stoke City in the summer of 2015 for a club record £12 million.

The transfer fee was a reported €11.6 million, with Shaqiri signing a four-year contract with the German club which would last until 30 June 2016, and which paid him around €2 million per season.

He faced competition for a place in the midfield from established internationals Franck Ribéry, Arjen Robben, Toni Kroos and Thomas Müller.

After Stoke's relegation from the Premier League in 2018, Shaqiri was transferred to Liverpool for a reported £13.5 million fee.

He was part of the UEFA Champions League winning squad in his first season.

He also won the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2019, as well as the Premier League in 2020, Liverpool's first league title in 30 years.