AFR Pays Tribute To Besian Idrizaj

Besian Idrizaj’s death has stunned football. The 22-year-old passed away in his sleep on Friday night at home in Austria. The forward was currently plying his trade for Swansea City and was regarded as a talented player for the club.

Paulo Sousa, the Swansea City manager, paid tribute to the young player:

“It’s sad for all the Swansea family, but more importantly his own close family. Our whole-hearted condolences go out to them.

"He was a player that I had every faith in. He worked hard throughout the season to get stronger and back to his best and I think by the end of the campaign all his team-mates could see what a talented boy he was.

"He was growing and getting better and stronger all the time and I fully expected him to show that talent to everyone in the Championship next season on a regular basis.

"He was fighting hard to fulfil his dream and it’s difficult to comprehend why that’s been taken away from him at such a young age. The only saving grace is that he didn’t suffer and he was close to the love of his family at the time.”Liverpool signed Besian Idrizaj in 2005 from LASK Linz after undergoing a trial. In the same year he won the Best Young Player Award in his home country. He never played a senior match for The Reds and had loan spells at Luton Town, Crystal Palace and Wacker Innsbruck.

In 2009 he played in Germany for FC Eilenburg and in July moved to Blackburn Rovers. But in August he had a trial at Swansea City and after impressing the manager he signed for them on the 22nd. Besian played 3 league matches and a League Cup fixture in his first year where their club just missed the Premier League play-offs.

Reports suggest that Idrizaj suffered a heart attack in his sleep. If this is the case, then it would have been the third one in his life. The first was in February 2008 whilst playing for Wacker Innsbruck and the second was during a trial with LASK Linz in November the same year.