Completed career 2023
© Imago
Blerim Dzemaili became champion and cup winner in Switzerland and Turkey, also won the cup in Italy and played 69 caps for the Swiss Nati. In 2023 he ended his career. At the transfer market, he speaks special moments and teammates over the two decades as a football professional, his change.
“Football was always an absolute passion for me. From an early age I carried the football gene in me. We didn’t have a cell phone, we had no playstation, we only had the football. Every game, I enjoyed every training session and I swore, I play until I am no longer fun and I’m mentally tired,” says Dzemaili.
The time had started as a professional at FC Zurich. There he celebrated the win of the Swiss championship in 2006 and 2007, and his trainer was called Lucien Favre in the first few years. He owes him a lot: “He was my biggest mentor and also a kind of father replacement. He often washed my head. After a few months at the time, I wanted to leave the club because I thought the football world was waiting for me. He only said to me: Blerim, you are still too young, you are not yet so far; you are now sitting on the bench for a month until you really have to be football. Let’s learn what humility and down -to -earthness means. “
In April 2007, Dzemaili suffered a cruciate ligament tear. “Of course, such an injury is not easy to cope with because you have a lot of questions through your head: how and when do I come back? What happens if another player takes over my position and I am superfluous? In my view, 70 percent plays in the head and only 30 percent in your legs. The mental strength is more important than the sporting skills: “I have been able to recognize the view in my career. Many players slide into a mental hole after a serious injury, is extremely difficult, but just as extremely important. Without mental strength, you cannot be successful in professional football. That is why I only focused on the positive during rehab and pushed a lot of extra units.”
Despite the injury, he was drawn to the Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League in the summer of the same year. However, he only played a game in one season before going to FC Turin loan. “The move to Bolton was the only wrong decision in my career. I also had offers from Juventus Turin and the AC Milan, but Bolton’s coach Sam Allardyce was incredibly stubborn. So I decided to get to Bolton. After he was gone and I felt fit, nobody was interested in me,” says Dzemaili, which should be a second home for Italy.
Marek Hamsik and Wesley Sneijder as the best teammate
“In Turin I immediately received the appreciation and the trust that I needed. In Turin, the love of the country and people came to the country. Today I see Italy as my second home. I discovered a completely different type of player in me. I became more offensive in my role, I was looking for more degrees. I have become a butterfly from a caterpillar,” he says. Although Turin Dzemaili committed in summer 2009, he immediately released him to Parma. The midfielder spent two seasons there.
With a move to the SSC Naples, his career should reach its peak. In summer 2011, the Partenopei transferred 9 million euros to Parma and thus the highest transfer paid for Dzemaili. He played for three years for the southern Italians, where he reached his personal market value record of 11 million euros in January 2014. “In Naples, the SSC is number one for many people in their lives. You are worn there as a professional on their hands, but the pressure is also very high. We went back to the train after the cup victory from Rome to Naples. We needed a state of emergency at the train station to leave the train station. Then we drove through the city with a double -decker bus. I had never experienced people, such an atmosphere and mood before, ”he says.
Dzemaili particularly likes to think back to one of his teammates in Naples: Marek Hamsik. “I am friends with Marek to this day. During my career, I did not see a player who could have such a big game intelligence and at the same time clean technology. He always knew exactly where his teammates were, he could play the special passes. He always had this serenity that I admired while I was happy to cot in games,” he says. In addition to Hamsik, Wesley Sneijder was perhaps his best player. With him Dzemaili thought: “Wow, what couldn’t he actually do with the ball? That’s why I always knew in difficult situations, I give the Ball Wesley, he already finds an answer.”
With Sneijder, Dzemaili played at Galatasaray during his one season. The Istanbuler won him in summer 2014 for EUR 2.35 million from Naples. “If Galatasaray played in another league, the club could easily be among the largest clubs in the world – they would definitely have the potential. What was going on at home games was blatant,” says Dzemaili. After the short intermezzo in Turkey, it led him back to Italy. First to the Genoa CFC, then to FC Bologna.
Blerim Dzemaili played 203 times for FC Zurich.
Changed to China for financial reasons
He stayed in Bologna from mid -2016 to early 2020. However, with a short interruption: he spent the second half of 2017 at the CF Montreal. “Montréal and Bologna have the same owner, so this option was. For me it was an incredible experience to expand my sporting and human horizon. I can understand that the MLS is in growth, although I find the sporting stimulus in Europe much greater. Since there are no relegations in the MLS, I often had the feeling that football is in certain ways. is more about show, more about passion and excitement in Europe, ”says Dzemaili.
A station at the Chinese first division club Shenzhen FC followed Bologna between January and October 2020. “I also switched to China for financial reasons, but I was not spending that, but I was at the end of my career,” says Dzemaili. He finds it worth considering, “if at the beginning of the 20-year-olds, he opted for the financial and not the sporting reasons to focus on and then switch to a weak league”. Many young players would be more than a brand today, because as a athlete and focus too much on social media. He sees that critically. He could advise every player to “continue to train. I think you shouldn’t neglect your brain. In order to expand your horizon, it is important to start distance learning, to learn a new language or to read books regularly. This is the only way to get new perspectives.”
From January 2021, Dzemaili was active again at FC Zurich at the end of his career for two and a half seasons. With the new win of the Swiss championship, he gave up his football shoes.
Text by Henrik Stadnischenko