Ilir Azemi is a Kosovar football striker who currently plays for SpVgg Greuther Fürth in the 2.
Background
Azemi was born in Pristina, SFR Yugoslavia (present day Kosovo) but moved to Germany when he was just three years old to flee the conflict in the region. Following the loss of his father, Azemi has been providing for his mother and three sisters through his footballing income.
Career
Bundesliga. Early career
Azemi began his career at local side Motor Gispersleben as a child where he remained until he was spotted by SpVgg Greuther Fürth scouts in 2007. He joined the Greuther Fürth youth setup in the summer of 2007, joining the under-17 squad a year later where he made 24 appearances, scoring four goals. He was then included in Jürgen Brandl"s under-19 side, where he scored ten goals in 23 games, which earned him a call up to the under-23 team before the end of the 2010-2011 season, where he made two appearances.
The 2011-2012 campaign in the under-23 squad (Greuther Fürth II) proved to be his best so far at the club, scoring 15 goals in 35 appearances, where he helped his side finish sixth and he ended the season as the Regionalliga Süd fifth top scorer.
SpVgg Greuther Fürth
Following Greuther Fürth"s promotion to the Bundesliga for the 2012-2013 campaign, Azemi joined the senior team during pre-season where he impressed with his goal scoring ability. He finished pre-season as the top scorer of all the Bundesliga sides, with 16 goals, five more than second places Vedad Ibišević of VfB Stuttgart.
He signed a long term contract keeping him at the club until 2015 with the option of an extension. The Albanian media has reported that Azemi has been called up by the Albania national under-21 football team, but Azemi has declined the invitation, in that he needs time to get himself established in his club first, however he has declared that he is looking forward to becoming part of the Albania senior team in the future, and that wearing the red-and-black jersey is one of his primary goals.
On 8 October 2012, his club SpVgg Greuther Fürth announced that he had accepted a recent call-up from the U21 national team of Albania In January 2013 Azemi repeated to the Albanian media that he expects a call up from manager Gianni de Biasi, to which he will respond positively in order to play for Albania.
In January 2014 he confirmed his intentions. But meanwhile he decided to play for Kosovo and joined Kosovo"s first international match on 5 March 2014 in Mitrovica. In June 2014, Azemi reiterated his interest in playing for Albania, since he wants to be in the field against Serbia for the Euro 2016 qualifiers, however this objective couldn"t be met as Azemi had a car crash accident in August 2014 that will keep him off the football pitch until complete recovery.