Amir Abrashi

Amir Abrashi came through the ranks at FC Winterthur, stepping up from the reserves to the first team before Grasshopper Club Zürich took him on loan in 2010 and made the move permanent a year later for a fee of €600,000. He stayed at the club long enough to win the Swiss Cup in 2012–13, then left as a free agent in the summer of 2015 for SC Freiburg.

Freiburg turned out to be the making of him. Abrashi made 93 league appearances there and was part of the side that won the 2. Bundesliga title in 2015–16, taking the club back up to the Bundesliga. A brief loan to FC Basel in 2021, where he added ten league appearances, preceded his return to Grasshoppers that June on a free transfer.

His international story has its own turn: after coming through Switzerland's youth ranks — reaching the final of the 2011 European Under-21 Championship and later playing for the Swiss Olympic side — Abrashi switched allegiance to Albania. He has gone on to earn 51 caps and a goal for the senior side, including a place in the squad at Euro 2016.

Now back in familiar surroundings at Grasshoppers, wearing the number 6 shirt, Abrashi plays in midfield for a club he already knows well from both ends of his career.