Florent Hadergjonaj: ‘This is my dream. I want to play these teams regularly’ | Paul Doyle

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Huddersfield right-back on adapting to the top flight, choosing Switzerland over Kosovo and why his club are right to stick with David Wagner

The first time Florent Hadergjonaj played against a Premier League team could have been his last. Romelu Lukaku made sure that thought occurred to the Swiss right-back after Hadergjonaj’s team, Young Boys, were dismantled 4-1 at home by Everton in the knockout stages of the 2014-15 Europa League, Lukaku blasting in a hat-trick. Hadergjonaj, then aged 20, was left on the bench a week later when Everton completed the demolition at Goodison Park, Lukaku helping himself to another two goals to complete a 7-2 aggregate win.

“Lukaku was just too strong,” recalls Hadergjonaj. “We had come through a hard group, with Napoli and Sparta Prague, and it was amazing to play against an English team. But every one of them was really strong and so much faster. Especially Lukaku. Afterwards I thought: ‘Maybe it’s too hard at this level.’ But then you think: ‘No, this is my dream, I want to play these teams regularly.’”

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from Football | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/feb/23/florent-hadergjonaj-huddersfield

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