Granit Xhaka Biography
Granit Xhaka is a Swiss professional footballer born on 27th September 1992 in Basel, Switzerland. He plays as a midfielder for English club Arsenal and the Switzerland national team.
Granit Xhaka and his brother began their youth football by Concordia Basel and both moved to Basel in 2002. Xhaka played for various Basel youth teams and since 2008 has been a member of the U-21 squad. Between 2008 and 2010, he played 37 games for the U-21 team, scoring eleven goals.
Granit Xhaka Age
- Granit Xhaka was born on 27 September 1992 in Basel, Switzerland (25 years as at 2017)
Granit Xhaka Religion
- Granit Xhaka is a muslim (of Islamic faith)
Granit Xhaka Net worth
- He has an estimated net worth of $65 Million
Granit Xhaka Parents
His parents are Eli and Ragip Xhaka, they are Albanian and originally from Kuršumlija, Serbia. His father Ragip was a political prisoner. At the age of 22, as a student at University of Pristina, Ragip participated in a 1986 student demonstration in Yugoslavia against the central government in Belgrade and, as a result, he was arrested and given a six-year sentence (he spent three and a half years in prison). Their family moved from Podujevo, District of Pristina to Switzerland in 1990.
Granit Xhaka Brother
Granit Xhaka is the younger brother of Taulant Xhaka, who is also a professional footballer and plays for FC Basel and the Albania national team.
Granit Xhaka Wife
On 6th July 2017 he married Leonita Lekaj, she was first spotted alongside Xhaka’s family as he battled against his brother during his national team’s match against Albania at Euro 2016.
Granit Xhaka Basel
Granit Xhaka and his brother began their youth football by Concordia Basel and both moved to Basel in 2002. Xhaka played for various Basel youth teams and since 2008 has been a member of the U-21 squad. Between 2008 and 2010, he played 37 games for the U-21 team, scoring eleven goals.
Since the beginning of the 2010–11 season, Xhaka played for the Basel first team. He made his first team debut in the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League in the away match against Debrecen in the Szusza Ferenc Stadium. At the end of the 2010–11 season, Xhaka won the Super League Championship title with Basel and at the end of the 2011–12 season he won the Double, the League Championship title and the Swiss Cup with the club.
Granit Xhaka
Granit Xhaka Borussia Mönchengladbach
Granit Xhaka signed a five-year deal with Borussia Mönchengladbach. Xhaka made his debut in a DFB-Pokal first round match against Alemannia Aachen on 18 August 2012. He made his first appearance in European competition for Borussia three days later against Dynamo Kyiv in qualification for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League. On 25 August, he made his Bundesliga debut in the team’s opening match of the season against 1899 Hoffenheim. On 30 September, he made his first appearance for Borussia in the Champions League proper against Manchester City.
Granit Xhaka Arsenal
On 25th May 2016 Xhaka signed to Arsenal for a fee of around £30–35 million. He made his debut for Arsenal (as a half-time substitution) in a 2–1 win against the MLS All-Stars.
Granit Xhaka made his competitive debut for Arsenal in the club’s opening match of the 2016–17 Premier League season, a 4–3 defeat to Liverpool, replacing midfielder Mohamed Elneny in the 65th minute while also picking up a yellow card in the process. His first goal for the club came on 17 September 2016, a 25-yard thunderbolt in a 4–1 Premier League victory against Hull City.
On 15th October 2016 he got his first Arsenal red card in a 3–2 win over Swansea City. On 22 January 2017, Xhaka was sent off for the second time in the season, by referee Jon Moss, in Arsenal’s 2–1 home win against Burnley. After his first goal for the club in September, he would not score in the Premier League again until doing so in May, scoring the first goal of a 2–0 victory over Manchester United, ending United’s run of 25 consecutive games unbeaten.
Granit Xhaka went on to feature throughout Arsenal’s triumphant FA Cup campaign. As so he started in the Cup final against Chelsea which the Gunners won 2–1. Xhaka also played in the 2017 Community Shield that Arsenal won on penalties over Chelsea. His first goal of the 2017–18 season came in a 3–3 draw with Liverpool, Xhaka scored a 25-yard thunderbolt to take Arsenal from 2–1 to 2–2.
Granit Xhaka International career
Granit Xhaka has played for Swiss youth squad at the U-17 level, participating in the Under-17 World Cup in 2009 in Nigeria. He played his first game for the Switzerland national under-19 football team on 25 May 2010 aginst Austria national under-19 football team.
Xhaka played his first game for the under-21 side on 3 September 2010 against the Republic of Ireland at the Cornaredo Stadium in Lugano in the qualification to the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.
Granit Xhaka debuted for Switzerland at Wembley Stadium against England in a UEFA Euro 2012 qualification draw on 4 June 2011. He participated in all ten of Switzerland’s 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign matches and was named in Switzerland’s 2014 World Cup squad. Xhaka was selected for Euro 2016.
He was included in the Switzerland national football team 23 man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Granit Xhaka Stats
| 2018 | Friendly | Switzerland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 90 |
| 2018 | WC Qual. | Switzerland | 11 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 952 |
| 2017-18 | Lg Cup | Arsenal | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 270 |
| 2017-18 | EPL | Arsenal | 38 | 37 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 3266 |
| 2017 | Int’l Champ Cup | Arsenal | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 62 |
| 2017-18 | Europa | Arsenal | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 495 |
| 2016-17 | Lg Cup | Arsenal | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 137 |
| 2016-17 | EPL | Arsenal | 32 | 28 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2486 |
| 2016 | Euro Cup | Switzerland | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 390 |
| 2016 | Euro Qual | Switzerland | 8 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 691 |
| 2016-17 | FA Cup | Arsenal | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 451 |
| 2016 | Friendly | Switzerland | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 180 |
| 2016-17 | UEFA CL | Arsenal | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 479 |
| 2015-16 | Bundesliga | B. M’gladbach | 28 | 28 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2367 |
| 2015 | DFB Pokal | B. M’gladbach | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 268 |
| 2015 | Friendly | Switzerland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 45 |
| 2015-16 | UEFA CL | B. M’gladbach | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 450 |
| 2014-15 | Bundesliga | B. M’gladbach | 30 | 30 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 2638 |
| 2014 | World Cup | Switzerland | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 323 |
| 2014 | Friendly | Switzerland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 64 |
| 2014-15 | Europa | B. M’gladbach | 7 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 589 |
| 2013-14 | Bundesliga | B. M’gladbach | 28 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 2026 |
| Season | Competition | Team | GP | GS | G | PKG | YC | RC | MP |
|---|
Granit Xhaka Stats with Arsenal
| UCL | Lge Cup | FA Cup | Prem Lge | C. Shield | UEL | Total | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |
| 2016-2017 | 5 + 2 | 1 | 1 + 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 28 + 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39 + 7 | 4 |
| 2017-2018 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 37 + 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 46 + 1 | 3 |
| 2018-2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 5 + 2 | 1 | 4 + 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 65 + 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 85 + 8 | 7 |
Granit Xhaka News: Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka gives positive injury update after World Cup scare
Source: metro.co.uk
Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka has breathed a sigh of relief after scans confirmed a knee injury that briefly threatened his World Cup hopes is not serious. Xhaka, 25, suffered the injury during a training session with the Switzerland national team in Lugano on Thursday, limping off after a heavy collision with a teammate. But after undergoing an MRI scan, the Swiss FA have now confirmed the Gunners midfielder was left with bruising to his left knee and not any ligament damage, dismissing suggestions that his participation in Russia next month could be in doubt.
‘I am very relieved,’ Xhaka said upon returning to the team hotel. The former Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder will sit out of upcoming training sessions to recover from the problem and will have no role to play in Switzerland’s upcoming friendly with Spain on Sunday 3 June. Switzerland are yet to confirm when he will return to full training.
‘We could already see the ligaments were intact, but we wanted to play it safe,’ Switzerland team doctor Pierre Etienne Fournier said. ‘We are very relieved that it is only a painful bone bruise – and very grateful that we were able to do an MRI scan late in the evening.’ Xhaka, who started all but one of Arsenal’s 38 Premier League matches last season, is regarded as an integral member of Vladimir Petkovic’s starting XI in Russia later this month. The midfielder has made 61 appearances for his country to date, scoring nine goals in that time. Switzerland reached the knock-out stages in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil before suffering defeat to eventual runners-up Argentina in the round of 16 stage. After their final warm-up match against Japan on Friday 8 June, they begin a competitive group campaign against Brazil on Sunday 17 June in Rostov before meetings with Serbia (22 June) and Costa Rica (27 June).