Besart Berisha

 ( Official Website ) 

Berisha was ruled out for the 2007–08 season when he picked up an injury while playing for his country in an International friendly against Malta. It was originally believed to be a minor knock to the knee but it was later discovered that the injury was more serious and was likely to keep the player out for 5–6 weeks. After seeing a surgeon it was further revealed that the player had in fact snapped his cruciate ligament in his knee and would not return to football for a year. The reason that doctors had originally failed to discover the damaged ligament was due to a buildup of fluid in the knee which distorted the scans image.

Ten months after suffering his serious knee injury, Berisha made his return to football in a pre-season friendly match in the USA against Carolina Railhawks when he came on in the 71st minute for Joey Guðjónsson. Berisha did not exert an influence in the 20 minutes that he spent on the field having just flown to United States 24 hours earlier from Albania. The American side defeated Burnley 2–1.

Berisha started for Rosenborg on 14 August 2008 in the first leg of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup qualifying rounds, a 2:1 loss to Djurgården, coming off in the 76th minute. He played only the first half in the second-leg, a 5–0 home victory, as Rosenborg won 6–2 on aggregate to advance to the next round against Brøndby. He played only in the second leg on 2 October 2008 which Rosenborg won 3–2. Rosenborg won 5–3 on aggregate, advancing to the Group stage where they faced Saint-Étienne, Valencia CF, Copenhagen and Club Brugge. Berisha played only once, against Club Brugge on 23 October 2008, coming on as a substitute in the 90th minute. The match finished in a goalless draw.

His contract with Burnley ran until 2010, but having failed to make a single competitive start for Burnley after his return, the club announced on 31 July 2009 that Berisha would be transferred to German Bundesliga 2 team Arminia Bielefeld. The transfer fee was believed to be £75,000.

He started the 2010–11 season on 22 September 2010 as a substitute in a 3–1 loss to VfL Bochum and scored his first goal of the season on 29 September 2010 in a 1–2 loss to Union Berlin. He finished the season with a total of 19 appearances, 12 as a starter. In 15 matches Berisha was an unused substitute.

On 14 January 2012, Berisha was involved in an on-field melee with Sydney FC defender Pascal Bosschaart. Despite being cleared by the referee's post-match report and the Match Review Panel, Berisha was found to have breached the FFA Code of Conduct and was banned for one match. On 14 February 2012, it was announced that Berisha had signed a two-year contract extension, taking him to the end of the 2013–14 season. Berisha's "volatile" personality led to occasional clashes with teammates, both at training and on-field, as well as with opposition players. However, he was largely praised for his passionate approach to the game.

In the 2012 A-League Grand Final against Perth Glory, Berisha scored a brace, one in the final seconds from a controversial penalty kick, to help the Roar win 2–1 and become the first team to win back-to-back A-League championships. Berisha became the first Albanian to score in two different Champions Leagues when he scored against F.C. Tokyo in the Asian Champions League. In the 2011–12 A-League season, Berisha won the Golden Boot with 19 goals, the Football Media Association Player of the Year, the Players' Player of the Year, and Members' Player of the Year awards. Berisha finished the season with 23 goals from 35 games, a record for a player in a season for Brisbane. His season tally included 19 goals in the regular season of the A-League; a joint all-time record.

Berisha had his competitive debut for Victory on 20 August 2014 in a 2014 FFA Cup Round of 32 match against Bayswater City SC away in Perth winning praise for his impact, assisting Archie Thompson's 77th-minute goal, followed by a hat-trick in the next round of the same competition in a 0–6 win away to Tuggeranong United in Canberra on 16 September.

Berisha made his A-League debut for the Victory in their first round clash with the Western Sydney Wanderers. In the same match, Berisha scored his first A-League goal for the Victory, and the 2nd goal of the new A-League season, from a penalty kick in the 19th minute of the match, putting the Victory 2–0 up, in an eventual 4–1 win for the Victory.

In his third appearance & start for his new club, Berisha made his debut in the newly re-established Melbourne Derby against Melbourne City FC in round 3 on 25 October 2014. In this match, Berisha scored his first hat-trick for the club, scoring Victory's second, third and fourth goals in an eventual 5–2 win in front of an attendance of 43,729 at Docklands Stadium, with the first and last goals coming from veteran teammate Archie Thompson. At this point of his Melbourne Victory career, Berisha had played a combined total of five games for the club, scoring seven goals and giving one assist. His goal scoring tally went up to 13 goals in the regular part of season, thus helping Melbourne Victory to win Premiership. In the final, Berisha scored the opener against arch rivals F.C. Sydney which Victory went to win 3–0.

On 2 December 2015, Berisha extended his contract with Victory for two further seasons, with his new deal set to end at the completion of the 2017–18 A-League season.

In November 2016, Berisha was announced as seeking Australian citizenship, after spending the required five years in the country, to be naturalised. He will be eligible for citizenship in October 2017. Once this has been achieved, Victory will be able to sign an additional visa player. On 17 December 2016, Berisha scored the winning goal in the 22nd Melbourne Derby. In doing so, he equalled Archie Thompson's tally of 90 goals in the A-League, the most ever scored by an individual in the league.

On 2 January 2017, Berisha became the A-League's all-time leading goalscorer, after scoring a penalty in an eventual 4–2 win over Newcastle.

On 14 April 2017, Berisha became the A-league's first ever player to score 100 goals in the competition after scoring a goal in a 1–0 win over the Central Coast Mariners. This goal also brought his regular season tally to 19, earning him a tie with Jamie Maclaren for the 2016–17 Golden Boot.

With 68 A-League goals, Berisha is Melbourne Victory's second-highest goalscorer behind Archie Thompson.

He scored his first goal for Albania on 25 May 2007, during a friendly match with England B played at Turf Moor, in Burnley, England, where he showed impressive form and was the Albanian man of the match. This goal was not recognized because the match was not between two fully senior teams. The first fully senior international goal was scored by Berisha on 22 August 2007 in a friendly match against Malta which Albania won 3–0. Berisha was in the starting line up and managed to score in the 46th minute of the second half. On 19 November 2008, Berisha assisted the equalizing goal scored by Ervin Skela in the friendly match against Azerbaijan which ended exactly as a 1–1 draw.

For the two matches against Hungary on 28 March 2009 and Denmark on 1 April 2009, coach Arie Haan left out Erjon Bogdani, a regular starter during the tournament, because the striker of Chievo Verona did not play for some time in the Italian Serie A. In those two matches Berisha gained a chance to play as a starter and in the 0–1 loss against Hungary on 28 March 2009, he completed the entire 90-minutes match forming a striker partnership with Hamdi Salihi. And four days later in a 0–3 loss against Denmark on 1 April 2009, he played once again in the starting line up as a single striker, then substituted off by Migen Memelli in the 85th minute. After the end of the tournament, he refused permanently to be called up for the national team's fixtures, one reason being that he lived a long distance away from Albania.

his last game with the national team, Berisha had made 17 appearances and scored one goal for Albania.
     

On 9 December 2013, he declared that after the opening of the winter transfer period he will sign for a football-club in Europe to be more close Albania and to play again for the national team, but suddenly on 22 January 2014 it was announced that fellow A-League club Melbourne Victory had agreed to sign Berisha for next season 2014–15. On 5 April 2014, he was asked by Albania national team coach Gianni De Biasi to play again for Albania only for the official matches valid for UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers and Berisha asked just ten days for final response. His late response was definitive to not accept latest invitation, as he declared that as long as he was playing in Australia he couldn't come to Albania due to the long distance.

In January 2016, Berisha declared that he was interested in representing Albania in UEFA Euro 2016.