Fatos Bećiraj

Early career and Budućnost

Bećiraj began his career in his hometown of Peja with the local club Shqiponja at 17 years of age, before joining their city rivals Besa Pejë in July 2007. After spending the first half of the 2007–08 season with Besa Pejë, his good performances in the Kosovar Superliga attracted attention from several clubs in the region, and in January 2008, Bećiraj moved to the Montenegrin First League side Budućnost Podgorica. He immediately established himself as a first team regular at Budućnost, scoring 9 goals in 15 appearances in the second half of the 2007–08 season, helping the club win the Montenegrin championship title and finish runners-up in the 2007–08 Montenegrin Cup. In the following two seasons, Bećiraj scored 28 league goals in 62 matches for the club, becoming league top scorer in the 2008–09 season with 18 goals scored.

Dinamo Zagreb

On 30 August 2010, it was announced that Bećiraj signed for Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb. He played well in his debut season with Dinamo and became regularly called up to the Montenegro national team. He played in 22 league matches and scored 8 goals, most notably a beautiful goal against Rijeka and a fine header against Hajduk Split. Bećiraj struggled to find his goalscoring form at the beginning of the 2011–12 season, finally scoring after eight matches without a goal, netting the fifth goal in a 5–0 win against Karlovac. He then scored the last goal in a 4–1 win against Malmö in the 2011–12…

Bećiraj was first called up for the Montenegro U21 national team by head coach Dušan Vlaisavljević in 2009, winning his first cap in a 2011 European Under-21 Championship qualifier against Kazakhstan on 7 June 2009. He went on to earn five caps for the U21 team before receiving his first call-up for the senior team in March 2009, for a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Italy. Bećiraj made his international debut in that match, coming on as a substitute for Radomir Đalović in the 70th minute of the game. He scored his first goal for Montenegro on 17 November 2010 in a friendly match against Azerbaijan. On 7 June 2019, Bećiraj captained Montenegro in a 1–1 draw against Kosovo. In November 2022, Bećiraj announced the end of his national team career, after 86 appearances and 15 scored goals.

Club

International

Scores and results list Montenegro's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bećiraj goal.

Budućnost Podgorica

Montenegrin First League: 2007–08 Dinamo Zagreb

1. HNL: 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13 Croatian Cup: 2010–11, 2011–12 Croatian Super Cup: 2013 Dynamo Moscow

Russian Football National League: 2016–17 Individual

Montenegrin First League top goalscorer: 2008–09 (18 goals) 1. HNL top goalscorer: 2011–12 (15 goals)