Migjen Basha

Club

Aris

Position

Midfielder

Nationality

Albania

Date of birth

1987-01-05

Birthplace

Lausanne, Switzerland

Height

1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)

Weight

0

Migjen Xhevat Basha (born 5 January 1987) is an Albanian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Greek club Aris Thessaloniki and the Albania national team.

Early life and youth career
Basha was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, to Kosovar Albanian parents who were originally from Theranda (also called Suhareka) and is the elder brother of Vullnet Basha, who is also a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Spanish club UCAM Mercia and has been capped once for the Albania national team. Basha went to Theranda for the first time in his early childhood to learn the Albanian language and attended the elementary school for several years. He returned to Lausanne before the Kosovo war broke out.

Basha started his youth career as an infant and at age of 11 joined the local team Dardania Lausanne, an amateur football club founded by the Albanian community in Lausanne, coached by Agim Cana. Then he moved at an amateur club called Team Vaud, and in 2004 he moved to Lausanne. In his first year at Lausanne, Basha gained entry to the first team.

Club career
Lausanne
He made his professional debut at the age 18, on 16 July 2005 in the 2005–06 season, in the match against Winterthur, which ended in a 5–4 victory for Lausanne, with Basha entering as a substitute in the 60th minute in place of Patrick Isabella. He scored his first goal in his third match appearance two weeks later, on 30 July 2005 in a 4–1 victory over Luzern. Basha once again came in as a substitute in place of Isabella in the 68th minute, scoring in the 88th minute and bringing the score to 3–1.

Lucchese
For the second half of the 2005–06 season, Basha moved to Italy at Luccehse-Libertas in the Serie C1. He played in five matches until the end of the season. He played for Lucchese in eight matches in the 2006–07 season.

Viareggio
In 2007, Basha moved to Viareggio in Serie C2. He made a total of 15 appearances and scored 1 goal, only in the first half of the 2007–08 season.

Rimini

Basha with Rimini in 2009
For the second half of the 2007–08 season, Basha moved to Rimini. He played 12 matches for Rimini in the second half of the 2007–08 season, since he made his debut on 2 February 2008 in the away victory 0–1 against Bari, entering as a substitute in the 77th minute.

Basha began the 2008–09 season with a goal on 17 August 2008 against Ravenna in Coppa Italia. The match finished in a draw 3–3 and ended a penalty shoot-out, where Basha missed