Full name Fanol Perdedaj Name Fanol Perdedaj Weight 70 kg | Number 8 Height 1.72 m Role Footballer | |
Date of birth (1991-07-16) 16 July 1991 (age 24) Place of birth Gjakova, SFR Yugoslavia | ||
Playing position | ||
Fanol Përdedaj (born 16 July 1991) is a Kosovan Albanian footballer who last played for 1860 Munich. He was raised in Germany, and represented their youth football teams, before switching to play for Kosovo.
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Youth
Përdedaj began his career for TSV Lichtenberg, and later he came to 1. FC Wilmersdorf. In July 2002, he transferred to the junior section of Hertha BSC.
Club
In the 2009–10 pre-season, he was called to the professional squad by his coach Lucien Favre. However, he was only used for the second team in the Regionalliga Nord and he was on the bench repeatedly for the first team.
Due to the injuries of Fabian Lustenberger and Dárdai, Perdedaj debuted for the first team on 14 August 2010 in the first round match of DFB-Pokal against SC Pfullendorf, where they won 2–0.
Six days later, Përdedaj played for the first time in a match of the 2. Bundesliga where they won against Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 3–2. Over the course of that season, Perdedaj went on to make 15 more appearances in the 2. Bundesliga.
In November 2010, he renewed his contract with Hertha BSC until 2015. On 4 March 2012, Përdedaj made his Bundesliga debut. In an interview following this match, Hertha-coach Otto Rehhagel nicknamed him "Paradise", partly due to his performance in the match, partly due to the fact that Rehhagel could not pronounce "Përdedaj" correctly. Perdedaj went on to play in seven of Hertha's ten remaining games that season.
The following season, he left Hertha on the last day of the summer transfer window, and signed a loan deal with Lyngby Boldklub. In his first six months in Denmark, Përdedaj struggled to establish himself as a starter for Lyngnby, starting eight of nineteen matches before the winter break, and coming on as substitute in another four. He briefly returned to Berlin in January to participate in the Hertha BSC training camp to stay fit over the break, which is much longer in Denmark than in Germany.
He signed a contract with FC Energie Cottbus on 17 January 2014 for a year and a half.
Germany
Having received German citizenship on 21 September 2009, Përdedaj has represented Germany at various youth levels. He was first nominated for the German U19 team by Horst Hrubesch where he debuted on 18 November 2009 in a match against Scotland and he featured repeatedly in qualifying for the 2010 U19-European Championship, but missed the finals due to injury.
He made his debut for the U-21 team on 11 October 2010 in a match against the Ukraine, coming on as a substitute for Christoph Moritz.
Kosovo
On 2 March 2014, Përdedaj was invited by Albert Bunjaki to play for the Kosovo national football team in its first international game recognised by FIFA: a friendly match against Haiti. Përdedaj accepted, and on 5 March 2014, made his debut for the Kosovo national team.