Arlind Ajeti

Ajeti was born in Basel, Switzerland, to Albanian parents originally from Podujevo, Kosovo, who had emigrated to Switzerland as did many Kosovans in the 1990s.

Arlind was the first child of Afrim and Sylbije Ajeti.

He is the older brother of twins also footballers, Albian who plays for Celtic and the Switzerland national under-21 team, and Adonis who most recent played for St. Gallen.

Arlind Afrim Ajeti (born 25 September 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Romanian Liga I club CFR Cluj and the Albania national team.

He holds dual Albanian and Swiss nationality.

In 2004 he became a player of Basel, representing the under-16, under-18 and under-21 teams.

With the under-21 team he played from the 2010–11 season until the 2014–15 in the 1. Liga Promotion, collecting overall 67 appearances in which he scored 4 goals.

On 2 January 2011, he signed his first professional contract with Basel, on a 2 1⁄2-year contract, and was called up to the first team ahead of the 2011–12 season, He was eligible to play for the newly formed Basel under-19 team in the 2011–12 NextGen series, playing the team's first game against Tottenham Hotspur on 17 August 2011.

He made his league debut as a substitute on 28 August 2011, in the 2–1 home win against FC Thun.

At the end of the 2011–12 season he won the Double, the League Championship title and the Swiss Cup with Basel.

He only played once in the league and had just two Swiss Cup appearances with the first team squad, but played regularly with the U21 team.

At the end of the 2012–13 Swiss Super League season Ajeti won the Championship title for the second time and was Swiss Cup runner up with Basel.

In the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League Basel advanced to the semi-finals, there being matched against the reigning UEFA Champions League holders Chelsea, but were knocked out being beaten 5–2 on aggregate.

During the beginning of the 2013–14 season on 5 October 2013 Ajeti scored his first league goal in the 2–1 away win against Lausanne-Sport.

At the end of the 2013–14 Super League season Ajeti won his third league championship with Basel.

They also reached the final of the 2013–14 Swiss Cup, but were beaten 2–0 by Zürich after extra time.

In the 2013–14 Champions League season Basel in the group stage finished the group in third position to qualify for Europa League knockout phase and here they advanced as far as the quarter-finals.

The 2014–15 season was a very successful one for Basel.

The championship was won for the sixth time in a row that season and in the 2014–15 Swiss Cup they reached the final.

But for the third season in a row, they finished as runners-up, losing 3–0 to FC Sion in the final.

Basel entered the Champions League in the group stage and reached the knockout phase as on 9 December 2014 they managed a 1–1 draw at Anfield against Liverpool.

But then Basel then lost to Porto in the Round of 16.

Basel played a total of 65 matches (36 Swiss League fixtures, 6 Swiss Cup, 8 Champions League and 15 test matches).

However under trainer Paulo Sousa the season 2014–15 was not a successful one for Ajeti.

He totalled solely 17 appearances for the team, just 3 in the League, 2 in the Cup and only 1 in the Champions League, however 11 appearances in test games.

Ajeti became one of the three Albania international footballers who participated in the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in history, along with his Basel teammates Shkëlzen Gashi and Taulant Xhaka.

In July 2015 the whole family became Albanian citizens.

His father Afrim was also a footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Ajeti's father Afrim was an inspiration for Arlind to start football when, aged 8, Arlind started playing each day with his father before beginning to play youth football with FC Concordia Basel at the age of 10.

On 24 November 2015, after six months as a free agent following the ending of his contract at Basel, Ajeti signed a contract until the end of the season with the newly promoted Serie A side Frosinone.

He was given the vacant number 93, a number which he choose due to his year of birth.

He was presented to the media two days later, where he said that playing in Serie A was a "dream come true", and thanked the club for giving him this opportunity.

He was called up for his first game on 6 December 2015, against Chievo Verona at the Stadio Matusa where he was an unused substitute.

He finally made his debut against Sassuolo on 6 January when he was involved in an own goal but he scored too in that match.

In the end Frosinone was relegated to Serie B.

On 7 July 2016, Torino completed the signing of Ajeti on a free transfer.

He penned a three-year contract, with the option to extend for a further two years.

His salary was reported to be €500,000 per season.

He made it his debut on 5 February 2017 against Empoli in a 1–1 draw.

A week later he scored his first goal against Pescara in the 9th minute to send the score 2–0 and conceded an own goal later, but however Torino won the match 5–3.