Anel Raskaj

Anel Raskaj

Anel Raskaj, playing for Halmstad in 2010
Personal information
Full name Anel Raskaj
Date of birth (1989-08-19) August 19, 1989
Place of birth Prizren,[1] SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Sandnes Ulf
Number 21
Youth career
KF Liria
2003 IF Leikin
2003–2006 Halmstads BK
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2007–2011 Halmstads BK 112 (2)
2012– Sandnes Ulf 130 (5)
National team‡
2009– Kosovo 3 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20 April 2015.

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 16:13, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Anel Raskaj (born August 19, 1989) is a Kosovo Albanian footballer playing for Norwegian team Sandnes Ulf.

Club career

Halmstads BK

Anel Raskaj started to play football for KF Liria, in Prizren, SFR Yugoslavia. At the age of 14 he moved with is his family to Halmstad in Sweden, where he continued his football career in IF Leikin, however only for a few months before leaving for local rivals Halmstads BK.[1] Although he had not been selected as a trainee, a youth team player training with the senior squad, in 2007 he was put on the bench home against IFK Göteborg in Allsvenskan and in the following away game against Kalmar FF he made his debut, replacing Martin Fribrock, just days following his 18th birthday.[2]

Prior to the 2008 season he was raised from the youth team to become a full member of the senior squad,[3] mainly being used as left winger.[4] In 2009 Raskaj and Michael Görlitz was the only players to have played in all league games of the season, 30 matches in total, he also represented the club in all the other 17 games of the year, 2 cup and 15 friendly matches, thus being the only player that had played in all the clubs matches in that year.[5] Anel Raskaj scored his first league goal in 2009 against Kalmar FF.[6]

The 2010 season saw Janne Andersson leave as Halmstads BK manager and being replaced by Lars Jacobsson, the former assistant manager. Lars continued with Janne's 4-5-1 system, Raskaj played most of his matches on the right side of the midfield, few times being used as left winger, scoring his second goal early in the season in Halmstad's 4-0 win over Åtvidabergs FF. The 2011 season started as the one before, Lars Jacobsson left the club and be replaced by Spanish Josep Clotet Ruiz, along with the new manager came a number of Spanish midfielders, which saw Anel moved from the starting lineup to the bench in the beginning of the league season, against many people's expectations.[7][8] In the mid of the 2011 season the Spanish players left as their loan ended with the club and Clotet Ruiz was sacked following a long serie of poor results, under new manager Jens Gustafsson Raskaj returned to the starting lineup,[9] he was however unable to help Halmstad from bein relegated by the end of the season.

Following the end of the 2011 season, several Halmstad players decided to leave the club, Anel Raskaj among them, as his contract with the club ended.[10] Rumors placed him in both Örebro SK and Kalmar FF.[11]

Sandnes Ulf

On January 30 newly promoted Norwegian club Sandnes Ulf confirmed that they had signed Raskaj on a one-year contract.[12]

National team

Anel Raskaj as team captain for Kosovo in 2010

On March 27, 2009 in an interview with the local newspaper Hallandsposten, Raskaj stated that he had been in contact with Swedish U21 co-manager Jörgen Lennartsson, who had told him that he just had missed out on the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship as he had not yet gained Swedish citizenship. He also stated in the interview that he would choose Sweden ahead of Kosovo, if he was considered good enough to get a position on the Swedish team.[1] In another interview with Fotbolldirekt.se he stated that Albania had already approached him, he had however turned them down.[13]

In 2009 Raskaj was called up to the unofficial Kosovo national team, playing under the name Team Kosovo, to play in two matches against Swedish opposition, first against 2008 Swedish champions Kalmar FF,[14] Raskaj did not take part in the second match against Malmö FF.

On February 17, 2010, Raskaj was again called up to Kosovo national team, against Albania.[15] On June 10 Anel Raskaj participated as team captain when Kosovo played a friendly against his club Halmstads BK on Örjans Vall in Halmstad, the match ended 4-4 with another Halmstads BK and Kosovo national player, Kujtim Bala, scoring a goal.[16]

On July 28, 2010 Anel Raskaj announced that he had chosen to represent the Kosovo national team, stating that he wished to play national team football and that he believed he would have more chance of doing so with Kosovo rather than Sweden. He also stated that he had not yet fully closed the door regarding Sweden as U21 coach Jörgen Lennartsson had stated he wished to see Raskaj in the U21 team and the 2011 U21 European Championship in Denmark. However, he has yet to obtain Swedish citizenship and Kosovo has yet to be approved by FIFA.[17]

New Zidane

Halmstads BK's former manager, Janne Andersson, compares him with former French international star Zinedine Zidane and former Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fàbregas,[18] claiming he has more talent than two earlier Halmstads BK players, Fredrik Ljungberg and Niclas Alexandersson.

Career statistics

Club performance League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Sweden League Svenska Cupen Europe Total
2007 Halmstad Allsvenskan 30–30
2008 2703––300
2009 3012––321
2010 2611-–271
2011 2602-–280
Norway League Norwegian Cup Europe Total
2012 Sandnes Tippeligaen 21310–223
2013 30020–320
2014 26010–270
2015 OBOS-ligaen 29220–312
2016 24030–270
Total Sweden 11228-–1202
Norway 13059-–1395
Career total 242717-–2597

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Anel har många mål i kikaren" (in Swedish). Hallandsposten.se. 2009-03-27. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
  2. ↑ "Anel Raskaj debuterade" (in Swedish). SvenskaFans.com. 2007-09-03. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  3. ↑ "Talanger till A-truppen" (in Swedish). hbk.se. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  4. ↑ "Kombinerar elitfotboll med studier" (in Swedish). hbk.se. 2008-09-04. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  5. ↑ "Anel har spelat samtliga matcher" (in Swedish). hbk.se. 2009-10-30. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  6. ↑ "Raskajs första allsvenska mål" (in Swedish). fotbollsverige.se. 2009-04-19. Archived from the original on 10 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  7. ↑ "Raskaj brinner för nya Halmstad" (in Swedish). hallandsposten.se. 2011-03-16. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  8. ↑ "Bortglömd Raskaj: "Bara mål som räknas"" (in Swedish). svenskfotboll.se. 2011-04-05. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  9. ↑ "Det är klart att man tänker på framtiden" (in Swedish). sportal.se. 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  10. ↑ "Spelarflykt hotar Halmstads BK: "Superettan lockar inte"" (in Swedish). fotbolltransfers.com. 2011-09-25. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  11. ↑ "Anel börjar bli orolig" (in Swedish). hallandsposten.se. 2012-01-06. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  12. ↑ "Raskaj klar for Sandnes Ulf" (in Norwegian). sandnesulf.no. 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  13. ↑ "Superlöftet missar EM-slutspelet" (in Swedish). Fotbolldirekt.se. 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
  14. ↑ "Kalmar FF - Team Kosovo" (in Swedish). kalmarff.se. 2009-06-12. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  15. ↑ "Anel spelade med Kosovo" (in Swedish). hbk.se. 2010-02-19. Archived from the original on 23 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  16. ↑ "Målrik vänskapsmatch mot Kosovo" (in Swedish). hbk.se. 2010-06-10. Archived from the original on 13 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  17. ↑ "Anel har bestämt sig för Kosovo" (in Swedish). hbk.se. 2010-07-28. Archived from the original on 13 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  18. ↑ "Nye Zidane tar Djuric roll i HBK" (in Swedish). svd.se. 2008-03-28. Archived from the original on 5 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-11.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.