Granit Xhaka

Granit Xhaka is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Sunderland and captains the Switzerland national team.

Xhaka began his career at hometown club Basel, winning the Swiss Super League in each of his first two seasons. He then moved to Bundesliga team Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2012, developing a reputation as a technically gifted player and natural leader alongside criticism for his temperament. He was made captain of Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2015 at the age of 22, leading the team to UEFA Champions' League qualification for a second successive season. He completed a high-profile transfer to Arsenal in May 2016 for a fee in the region of £30 million.

Xhaka was part of the Swiss team that won the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup. He made his senior debut in 2011 and has won over 100 caps, representing the nation at the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and 2018, and the UEFA European Championship in 2016 and 2020.

Granit Xhaka was born on 27 September 1992 in the city of Basel, Switzerland, into an ethnic Albanian family from Podujevo, Kosovo, then part of the FR Yugoslavia. The family moved from Podujevo to Basel, Switzerland that year where Granit and his older brother Taulant Xhaka were born.

Before making his international debut for Switzerland, Xhaka was still undecided whether to play for his birth country or Albania, and he complained to the Albanian sports media that FSHF was ignoring him while the Swiss Football Association was showing much more interest.