Astrit Ajdarevic arrived at Leicester as a loan signing from Liverpool. This was during the 2008/09 season, Leicester playing in League One. Ajdarevic played 5 league games, making his debut vs. Carlisle on the 4th of April 2009, the game ending 2-2.
The deal was made permanent at the end of the season. No transfer fee involved as the Swedish youth international had been released by Liverpool. A strange signing as he was overlooked completely by Nigel Pearson, not being involved at all during his full first season at the club. He later ended up on loan at Hereford, before leaving Leicester in the summer of 2010.
Ajdarevic returned to Swedish football, signing for Orebro, being seen as a major player in the Swedish Allsvenskan. He made progress and after 13 games and 5 goals scored for Orebro, he decided to use a clause in his contract and move to Norrkoping. He had continued progress and was playing for Sweden u.21, in total making 15 appearances and scoring 2, also given a chance to play for the Olympic team, making 3 appearances, scoring 1 goal.
This was a young up and coming player, getting a new chance to move abroad as he joined Belgian club Standard Liege. But the stay became difficult as new loans out became the pattern, playing for Charlton and Helsingborg. He had a four year spell in Belgium, but only on the field in 26 league games scoring 2 goals.
Ajdarevic made a return to Orebro and build on his time here to join AEK Athens in Greece, being part of a league winning team. He again returned to Sweden and Stockholm, playing for Djurgarden from 2018 to 2020, becoming a Swedish Allsvenskan champion.
He admitted in an interview with Liverpool Echo, that he would have loved to stay at Anfield, but did not put in the shifts needed to be part of that establishment. Anyway looking back at his career from the early days at Leicester, being part of the climb back to the top, he surely made a good journey, being a top tier league winner in two countries as well as having played for a number of interesting football clubs.
He was born in Serbia, moved to Sweden, representing them at several youth levels up to u.21, but his only full cap was in a game for Albania, back in 2017. So also a full international journey, but still cut short
FACTFILE
- Full Name: Astrit Agim Ajdarevic
- Position: Midfield
- Date of Birth: 17.04.1990
- Birthplace: Pristina, Serbia
- Nation: Albania / Sweden
- Caps / Goals: 1 / 0
- Major Career:
- 2009-10, Leicester City (5/0)
- 2010, Orebro (13/5)
- 2011-12, Norrkoping (40/6)
- 2012-15, Standard Liege (26/2)
- 2015-16, Orebro (35/6)
- 2016-18, AEK Athens (35/1)
- 2019-20, Djurgarden (30/0)
- 2021, Akropolis (8/0)
- Links: Wikipedia
