Pëllumb Jusufi

Pëllumb Jusufi (Macedonian: Пелумб Јусуфи; born 10 February 1988) is a Croatian-Macedonian football player. The midfielder currently plays for the fourth-tier NK Cres. He is of Albanian descent.

Pëllumb Jusufi
Personal information
Date of birth (1988-02-10) 10 February 1988
Place of birth Tetovo, SR Macedonia,
SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Offensive midfielder, Forward
Club information
Current team
 NK Cres
Number 8
Youth career
–2000 NK Cres[1]
2000–2006 Dinamo Zagreb
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2007 Bonifika 11 (1 [2])
2007–2008 Domžale 2 (0)
2008–2009 Dinamo Tirana 20 (2)
2009–2010 KS Kastrioti Kruje 29 (0)
2010–2011 NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac 14 (0)
2011 → HNK Gorica 11 (2)
2011 FC Vysočina Jihlava 1 (0)
2012 Shkëndija Tetovo 3 (0)
2012 Tomori 5 (0)
2013 NK Cres 11 (13[3])
2013–2014 FC Jazz 31 (11)
2014–2015 FK Renova 4 (0)
2015–2016 MuSa 33 (13)
2016–2017 FK Poprad 9 (1)
2017– NK Cres 39 (11)
National team‡
2004–2006 Croatia U17 19 (1)
2006 Croatia U18 2 (2)
2006–2007 Croatia U19 14 (3)
2007–2009 Croatia U21 1 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17 December 2018
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 15 June 2009

Career

Childhood and early career

Jusufi was born in Tetovo, SFR Yugoslavia to Macedonian Albanian parents from Pirok. Jusufi started playing football at the age of 7 and was mentored by his father, Isak Jusufi, a former professional footballer. Jusufi and his family moved from Tetovo to Zagreb, Croatia when he was 12 years old. In Croatia, he continued playing football and was eventually scouted by Croatian club NK Dinamo Zagreb in 2000. He started playing in the Dinamo youth team and made his way up the ranks of the club. His success in the youth division got him noticed by the Croatian Football Federation and decided to represent Croatia at youth level ahead of the country of his birth Macedonia and Albania. Whilst representing Croatia at a European football tournament in 2006, interests from Borussia Dortmund and VfB Stuttgart were noted. Jusufi was expected to sign for them, however talks broke down between both parties.[4] Jusufi moved to the second-tier Slovenian side SC Bonifika, where he stayed for the rest of the season playing for the senior team while still being eligible for the youth squad. His impact on the team got him noticed by NK Domzale and he moved there in the summer of 2007.

Domžale

Jusufi played for the then Slovenian champions, NK Domzale. During his time in Slovenia he mainly made his appearance as a substitute off the bench. As he did not get regular first team football, Jusufi left Domzale for Dinamo Tirana, then Albanian Superliga champions. Jusufi made 2 appearances in the Champions League for NK Domzale, one of them against Dinamo Tirana's local rivals KF Tirana.[5]

Dinamo Tirana

Jusufi played his first match for Dinamo in the Albanian Supercup against Vllaznia Shkodër. He helped Dinamo win by scoring in the 78th minute[6] Jusufi scored twice in twenty appearances for Dinamo and at the end of the season, moved to newly promoted team, KS Kastrioti Kruje.

Kastrioti Kruje

Jusufi stayed in Kruje for one season, keeping Kastrioti Kruje in the top half of the superliga for the first time in the club's history.

Shkëndija

During the winter break of the 2011/2011 season, Jusufi moved to Macedonian Prva liga champions, KF Shkëndija.[7]

FC Jazz

On 14 August 2013 Jusufi was signed by Finnish third-tier side FC Jazz. The connection between Jusufi and Pori based team was made by the father of Nooralotta Neziri who is a Finnish hurdler of Macedonian Albanian descent.[8] Jusufi made 7 appearances scoring 7 goals for Jazz in 2013 Kakkonen.[9] His team was promoted to Ykkönen after the promotion playoffs against Ekenäs IF.[10]

International career

Jusufi has represented Croatia in every youth level. Jusufi has not represented Croatia at the senior level and is therefore eligible to represent either Albania, Croatia or North Macedonia.

Honours

Club

Dinamo Zagreb

  • Youth league Player of the Year: 2003, 2004[11]
  • Youth league Best Scorer: 2002, 2003, 2005[12]

Domžale

Dinamo Tirana

References
  1. Jusufi donio bodove
  2. Statistika ekipe za klub: Bonifika
  3. Ilijić svih 24, Perčić golgeter
  4. "Foreign interest in Jusufi". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
  5. "Pëllumb Jusufi's Champions League Games 2007-2008". footballdatabase.
  6. Dinamo fituese e Superkupës së Shqipërisë 2008
  7. "Shkendija got Demiri, Tamboura and Jusufi". Retrieved 1 February 2011.
  8. "Jazzille vahvistus Kroatiasta" (in Finnish). Satakunnan Kansa. 14 August 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  9. Pëllumb Jusufi statistics Finnish Football Association. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  10. "Europa League football for Vaasa in 2014". Yle News. 20 October 2013. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  11. "Youth Stats". Archived from the original on 20 July 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  12. "Youth Stats". Archived from the original on 20 July 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2012.

Sources
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