Valon Behrami (born 19 April 1985 in Kosovska Mitrovica) is a Swiss midfielder currently playing professional football for S.S. Lazio of Italian Serie A.
Of Kosovo-Albanian origin, Behrami moved to Stabio, a small city in Italian-speaking Switzerland, with his family due to war when he was only a child, and he then obtained the Swiss nationality.
Behrami started playing football in Swiss sides FC Stabio, FC Chiasso and FC Lugano. After a number of impressive appearances with FC Lugano, Behrami was jointly signed by Italian teams Genoa and Udinese, and played the Serie B championship with Genoa in 2003. In 2004, Udinese sold its rights on Behrami to Hellas Verona, and therefore Behrami moved to the gialloblu side, again in Serie B. After an impressive season played with Hellas Verona, Lazio signed him in the summer of 2005. He is used to wear the #85 jersey, as he does for Lazio.
Behrami has also been capped for the Switzerland national football team at the Under-18, Under-19 and "A" levels. However, Behrami has also expressed the wish to play for Kosovo if the area should gain independence.
For the Swiss national team, Behrami scored a very important goal against Turkey in the Stade de Suisse in the last 2006 World Cup barrage.
