OK, bear me out here. You won't have heard of him, but I've been following his progress for a while and I think he could be great for us, and dirt cheap.
NB: Not to be confused with his brother Valon Berisha, also a Norwegian international, who is a midfielder with Red Bull Salzburg.
Veton is just 22, quite a short guy (5'7½") and is currently playing in the German second division SpVgg Greuther Fürth. 8 goals (and four assists) in 34 matches doesn't sound great but bear in mind that Greuther Fürth is not a great team, and he can't do everything on his own. He's been there for the past year.
Far more interesting is his earlier record at Stavanger (or Viking FK as the club is called), in Norway's top division. 28 goals (and 12 assists) in 106 games, between 2011 and 2015. Bear in mind that he was 16 years old in 2010 and most of those earlier games he came on as a sub at the end. In fact, according to Transfermarkt he played 5824 minutes in 106 matches, which is about 55 mins per match on average, so you can see how many times he just came on for the last ten minutes or so. Actually, you can see for yourselves To view the link you have to Register or Login. Note how he plays the full 90 minutes in almost all his later games for Viking, once they realised his worth.
In spite of playing in second division Germany, he has recently been called up to the Norwegian International side (I should add that he scored 8 goals for the under 18s in 14 matches on his way there).
On 29 May (just over a month ago) he played the full 90 minutes in a 3-0 loss against a full Portugal squad in an international friendly, he didn't score though.
But one week later, on 5 June 2016, under a month ago, he scored the second (and winning) goal against none other than in-form Belgium, slotting the ball beautifully past Courtois with his left foot (he plays with both left and right foot pretty equally, and plays as a centre-forward.)
Again, this was a full Belgium squad, with Courtois, Hazard, Lukaku, the lot. To view the link you have to Register or Login and it was thanks to little Veton Berisha.
Here's the goal, for your delectation:
Now, Transfermarkt has Veton valued at £600k, and his contract with SpVgg Greuther Fürth expires in 2018 I believe.
His older brother, the midfielder Valon, is valued at £1.88m, but I think that is purely because he's at Salzburg. We don't need Valon. We have Cabaye, Ledley, Mutch, etc etc. That area is covered.
But Veton, on the other hand, is a real promise for the future. With Dwight Gayle gone we should aim now to sign him. He's better than Fraizer Campbell (not hard, I know), and I think he would be good cover for Connor Wickham, in fact he will be better than Connor with a bit of Premier League practice.
I reckon if we offered SpVgg Greuther Fürth a million squid they'd sell him to us, especially as they have recently signed Croatian Ante Vukušić, and their Kosovo goal-machine Ilir Azemi is making good recovery following his horrible car crash a couple of years ago.
Here is the obligatory YouTube of his goals and assists (at Viking):
So, what do you think? Good prospect for us? Should we let someone at the club know?
NB: Not to be confused with his brother Valon Berisha, also a Norwegian international, who is a midfielder with Red Bull Salzburg.
Veton is just 22, quite a short guy (5'7½") and is currently playing in the German second division SpVgg Greuther Fürth. 8 goals (and four assists) in 34 matches doesn't sound great but bear in mind that Greuther Fürth is not a great team, and he can't do everything on his own. He's been there for the past year.
Far more interesting is his earlier record at Stavanger (or Viking FK as the club is called), in Norway's top division. 28 goals (and 12 assists) in 106 games, between 2011 and 2015. Bear in mind that he was 16 years old in 2010 and most of those earlier games he came on as a sub at the end. In fact, according to Transfermarkt he played 5824 minutes in 106 matches, which is about 55 mins per match on average, so you can see how many times he just came on for the last ten minutes or so. Actually, you can see for yourselves To view the link you have to Register or Login. Note how he plays the full 90 minutes in almost all his later games for Viking, once they realised his worth.
In spite of playing in second division Germany, he has recently been called up to the Norwegian International side (I should add that he scored 8 goals for the under 18s in 14 matches on his way there).
On 29 May (just over a month ago) he played the full 90 minutes in a 3-0 loss against a full Portugal squad in an international friendly, he didn't score though.
But one week later, on 5 June 2016, under a month ago, he scored the second (and winning) goal against none other than in-form Belgium, slotting the ball beautifully past Courtois with his left foot (he plays with both left and right foot pretty equally, and plays as a centre-forward.)
Again, this was a full Belgium squad, with Courtois, Hazard, Lukaku, the lot. To view the link you have to Register or Login and it was thanks to little Veton Berisha.
Here's the goal, for your delectation:
Now, Transfermarkt has Veton valued at £600k, and his contract with SpVgg Greuther Fürth expires in 2018 I believe.
His older brother, the midfielder Valon, is valued at £1.88m, but I think that is purely because he's at Salzburg. We don't need Valon. We have Cabaye, Ledley, Mutch, etc etc. That area is covered.
But Veton, on the other hand, is a real promise for the future. With Dwight Gayle gone we should aim now to sign him. He's better than Fraizer Campbell (not hard, I know), and I think he would be good cover for Connor Wickham, in fact he will be better than Connor with a bit of Premier League practice.
I reckon if we offered SpVgg Greuther Fürth a million squid they'd sell him to us, especially as they have recently signed Croatian Ante Vukušić, and their Kosovo goal-machine Ilir Azemi is making good recovery following his horrible car crash a couple of years ago.
Here is the obligatory YouTube of his goals and assists (at Viking):
So, what do you think? Good prospect for us? Should we let someone at the club know?
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