Facts about Granit Xhaka

is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for

club

and captains the

.

In 2016, Granit Xhaka signed a contract with Arsenal, leaving

for £40.5m. He has become a major part of Arsenal's squad under the management of Mikel Arteta, as he proved to be a trustworthy defensive midfielder.

The first

fact about Granit Xhaka

is that he got married to Leonita Lekaj. The couple welcomed their first child on October 7, 2019. Lekaj gave birth to a baby girl named Ayana Xhaka.

Xhaka began his career at hometown club Basel, winning the Swiss Super League in each of his first two seasons. He then moved to

team Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2012.

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The followings are some lesser-known facts about Granit Xhaka:

Xhaka was part of the Swiss team that won the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup. An interesting fact about Granit Xhaka is that he was the eighth most Googled personality in Switzerland in 2018.

Granit Xhaka early life

Granit Xhaka was born on 27 September 1992 in the city of Basel, Switzerland into an Albanian family from Podujevo, then part of the SFR Yugoslavia, now Kosovo.

Granit Xhaka’s age

is 29 as of 2021.

Xhaka’s parents

, who are Kosovo Albanian, moved to Basel in order to start a family, and it would prove to be a right decision for both Granit and his older brother Taulant. After starting their youth careers at Concordia, the pair switched to FC Basel in 2002.

As another fact about Granit Xhaka, it is worth mentioning that his father, Ragip, was a political prisoner. At the age of 22, as a student at University of Pristina, he was arrested for participating in a 1986 student demonstration against the central government in Belgrade, and served three and a half years of a six-year prison sentence before being released in 1990.

Xhaka family moved from Podujevo, district of Pristina to Switzerland that year. Granit’s older brother,

, is a professional footballer who played for

and the

. There is no more information available about

Granit Xhaka childhood

.

Despite conceding two years to Taulant, it was evident that Basel’s senior coaches saw Granit as the future star. Having progressed through the youth ranks at St-Jakob Park, Xahaka announced himself to senior football in an emphatic style with a debut goal in a Champions League qualifier against Hungarian club

.

The talented youngster continued to impress over the next two seasons, helping the club to two Swiss Super League and a Swiss Cup while breaking into the senior national side too.

By the end of his second campaign, Xhaka had become Basel’s star man. Various clubs came knocking and he eventually moved to Germany for a fee of €8.5m.

Four years of Bundesliga experience, as well as Champions League competitions have seen the 23-year-old develop into a truly remarkable talent.

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Granit Xhaka wife

Leonita Lekaj, 29, has been with Granit since meeting him during his time at German Bundesliga club Borussia Monchengladbach in 2015.

The couple were engaged in June 2016 after two years together and tied the knot at a ceremony in July 2017.

The stunning brunette comes from a Kosovo-Albanian family and worked at the German club.

She is said to have spent her early life in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, before her family moved to the Ruhr, Germany.

Leonita moved to London with Granit, who grew up in Switzerland, when he joined Arsenal for £30million in 2016.

Leonita got famous after she started dating the Swiss international and since then she became an Instagram model and she has been very successful.

Leonita was born on March 31, 1992, which means that she is already 29-year-old.

The beauty was born in Albania and she was raised in Pristina, Kosovo. However, when she got older, her family moved to Ruhr region of Germany.

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Granit Xhaka professional career

A noticeable

fact about Granit Xhaka

is that he has had many ups and downs at Arsenal, but there’s more to his game than he is given credit for. Xhaka has thrived on bigger stages; he has a curious habit of scoring against top teams and has dominated cup finals and European knockout ties.

The Swiss star has not only physical attributes but a mental reading of the game which helps him become a star on the pitch.

Granit's patience, composure, and control of the ball are some of his unique playing style, which have made his performance prominent. Although Granit Xhaka has not recorded many direct assists, he has often been famous for his ability to start attack.

There was a lot of anticipation for seeing him take to the field after signing for the Gunners as he had played a crucial role in taking Switzerland through to the knockout stages.

Many fans believe that Granit Xhaka did not live up to the expectations. However, there are others who believe that he had qualities that convinced Arsene Wenger to open his chequebook to sign the midfielder.

His most striking ability is the extraordinary range of passing. He tends to spray the ball around the field from his deep-lying midfield position.

“He's a leader and that is really important, especially in midfield. He has got a very good attitude, is very composed on the ball and contributes a lot.

He is a good passer as well, so he will set the tempo. I am looking forward to how he does it, how composed he will be in training and in the games. He will be the perfect signing for us,” Per Mertesacker commented when Xhaka was in Bundesliga.

Anyway, Arsenal have players with real pace who are ideal to race on to Xhaka’s direct passes.

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Granit Xhaka club career

In 2000, Xhaka began his football career at Concordia Basel along with his brother. Both stayed two years with the club and later they moved to Basel.

He followed several youths set up at Basel, and since 2008, he has been a member of the Under-20 team.

Between 2008-2010, he made 37 game appearances for the under-21 squad, scoring 11 goals.

In the 2010-11 season, he made his professional and first-team debut in the 3rd qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League in the match against Debrecen. He scored the first goal in the team's 2-0 win.

On 15th May 2011, he scored his first Super League goal in a 5-1 victory over FC Thun. Moreover, he also won the Super League Championship, the League Championship title, Double, as well as the Swiss Cup with Basel.

On 18th May 2012, Xhaka arrived at Monchengladbach, signing a five-year contract for an estimated transfer fee of €8.5 million.

On 18th August 2012, he made his debut against Alemannia Aachen in a DFB-Pokal.

Later, Xhaka made his UEFA Championship League debut in a 1-3 home defeat in the qualification round.

On 25th August of the same year, he made his Bundesliga debut in a 2-1 victory over 1899

.

On 23rd September 2015, he has announced the captain of Borussia.

Under his captaincy, he led the team in a 4-2 victory against

and a 3-1 win against

.

On 25th May 2016, he penned Arsenal for a worth of around £30-35 million.

He made his Arsenal debut in a 2-1 win over the MLS All-Stars, where he entered as a half-time substitute.

In the Arsenal's opening match of the 2016-12 Premier League season, he made his competitive debut in a 4-3 loss to

, replacing

.

On 17th September 2016, he recorded his first goal for Arsenal in a 4-1 Premier League win over

.

With the club, he won 2016-17 FA Cup and 2017

.

He scored the first goal, from a direct free kick, in a 2-1 victory against

on 15th September 2018.

He scored again from a free-kick against

on 28th October 2018.

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Granit Xhaka international career

Granit Xhaka was a team member of Switzerland U-17 team which won the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup. He was part of U-18, U19, and U-21 squad. He is eligible for both the Albania and Switzerland national team.

But later, he decided to play for Switzerland because the Swiss Football Association showed much more interest in him while Albanian sports media, FSHF ignored him.

On 4th June 2011, he made his international team debut side Switzerland in a 2-2 UEFA Euro 2010 qualification draw.

He has represented his native country in 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign matches, 2014 World Cup and 2016 Euro Cup.

He was also named in Switzerland's 23 man team for the 2018 FIFA World Cup along with his teammates

,

, and

.

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Granit Xhaka children

In 2019, Granit Xhaka’s wife Leonita gave birth to baby girl as he announced her arrival with a cute picture.

The Switzerland international, 29, took to Instagram to announce his bundle of joy with a cute picture.

He shared a black and white image showing the new arrival's hand on top of those of his own and Leonita's. He wrote, “Welcome our little princess, Mommy and Daddy love you.” Ayana is their first child.

Leonita, 29, has been with Granit since meeting him during his time at German Bundesliga club Borussia Monchengladbach. The couple was engaged in June 2016 and married in July 2017.

Xhaka entertained himself in coronavirus self-isolation by pranking his baby daughter. He uploaded a clip showing him holding a slice of lemon.

The midfielder then gently fed it to his baby girl who was propped up on the sofa. Unsurprisingly, the taste was not so good and the baby made a disgusted face.

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Some quick facts about Granit Xhaka

Granit Zhaka was born on 27th September 1992 in Basel, Switzerland. He was raised up alongside his brother Taulant Xhaka by their Albanian parents: father, Ragip Xhaka, and mother, Elmaze Xhaka. The football player is dating Leonita, his starsign is Libra and he is now 28 years of age.

His father, Ragip, was a student at the University of Pristina and at his 22, he participated in demonstrations against the Communist Yugoslavia rule in Kosovo which resulted in three and half year prison sentenced to him.

In the year 1990, his family relocated to Switzerland from Podujevo of Pristina, before either was born. By nationality, Xhaka is a Swiss and Kosovar and his ethnicity is mixed. His religion is Christian. As of 2021, he celebrated his 29th birthday.

Regarding

Granit Xhaka’s body measurement

, it should be mentioned that his height is in feet inches – 6' 0” – in centimeters – 183 cm, and his weight is in Kilograms – 70 kg – in Pounds – 154 lbs.

A quite surprising fact about Granit Xhaka is that he once swore at fans after being substituted during their Premier League draw with Crystal Palace.

The talking point came after 61 minutes as Xhaka - a decisive figure among Arsenal supporters - was substituted for

.

Xhaka's withdrawal was initially greeted by large cheers, which soon turned to jeers as he took his time to leave the pitch despite the score being level.

He reacted by waving his arms, cupping his ears and seemingly mouth "f*** off" twice as he pushed away a handshake from Emery, took off his shirt and headed straight down the tunnel.

"He was wrong, He was wrong," Emery said when asked about the situation.

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Granit Xhaka social media

Granit Xhaka’s personal life

is shared with his 2m followers via his Instagram page (

). However, once, he reached "boiling point" after his wife and daughter were abusively targeted on social media, the Arsenal captain said as he spoke for the first time to explain his angry reaction to the club's supporters booing him.

"The scenes that took place around my substitution have moved me deeply," Xhaka said in a statement posted on Arsenal's twitter feed and website late Thursday. "I love this club and always give 100% on and off the pitch.

"My feeling of not being understood by fans and repeated abusive comments at matches and in social media over the last weeks and months have hurt me deeply.

"People have said things like, 'We will break your legs', 'Kill your wife' and 'Wish that your daughter gets cancer.' That has stirred me up and I reached boiling point when I felt the rejection in the stadium on Sunday.

"In this situation, I let myself be carried away and reacted in a way that disrespected the group of fans that support our club, our team and myself, with positive energy. That has not been my intention and I'm sorry if that's what people thought.

"My wish is that we get back to a place of mutual respect, remembering why we fell in love with this game in the first place. Let's move forward positively together."

Regarding G

ranit Xhaka’s social media

activities, it should be mentioned that he and his wife are very active on the social media, as they post pictures of their little daughter.

You can find Leonita Lekaj Instagram (

) with 183K followers, but recently she decided to lock her account as she was getting abused after the controversy around Xhaka, while Emery was in charge of Arsenal.

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Granit Xhaka net worth

Speaking about

Granit Xhaka net worth

, it should be mentioned that he has made his 15 million dollar fortune with Arsenal, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and Swiss National Team.

On 25 May 2016, Arsenal signed Xhaka from Borussia Mönchengladbach for a fee of around £30–35 million. He earns around £100,000 per week and £5,200,000 per year.

Granit Xhaka salary

is £5,200,000 after he signed a 5 year / £26,000,000 contract with the Premier League club, Arsenal F.C.

Xhaka is a very successful and a wealthy footballer with an estimated net worth of $15 million. As of 2019, he earns about £90,000 weekly wage from his current club, Arsenal which sums up to pocket him around £4,680,000, annually.

The final fact about Granit Xhaka is that his market value is recorded at £45 million. Overall, he is satisfied with his earning and he is living a luxurious life.

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