Zeki Amdouni joins Benfica!

WELCOME, ZEKI AMDOUNI

Zeki Amdouni, 23 years old, has joined the professional football team of Sport Lisboa e Benfica. The Swiss forward joins the club from Burnley on loan until the end of the season, with an option to buy.

Happy to be joining a club as big as Benfica, the Swiss international wants to help the team to achieve its goals.

“Even if I didn't play all the time as a striker and even if I played a little further back, I was always able to score goals. That's also my instinctive side, which I also want to bring to the team,” said Zeki Amdouni in an interview with BTV, the full version of which you can read here.

The new number 7 of the Eagles also guaranteed that he can't wait to make his debut in the Sacred Mantle in front of Benfica “passionate fans”.

INTERVIEW

THE JOURNEY

Born on December 4, 2000 in Genève, Switzerland, Zeki Amdouni spent his youth training time with Servette, Meyrin and Etóile Carouge, a club that gave him his first-team debut at the age of 16 in 2017: he was brought on in the 89th minute of a 3-0 win over Echallens in the IV Division of Switzerland. The following season (2018/19), the young striker took his place and contributed to Etóile Carouge's promotion to Division III with 14 goals.

His good performances earned him a transfer to Stade-Lausanne, from the II Division, where he scored 15 goals in 59 games over two seasons, a record that resulted in a move to rivals Lausanne-Sport, thus climbing the final step to the elite of Swiss Football. In 2021/22, his debut season in the Swiss First Division, the new Benfica player scored 15 goals in 38 games and caught the eye of Basel, who signed him on loan for 2022/23.

MESSAGE TO THE BENFIQUISTAS

After a slow start at the rotblau, Amdouni showed all his quality in the second half of the season, scoring 20 goals in the 16 games he played between January 22 and May 29. Seven of them came in the knockout phase of the Conference League and allowed him to finish as the competition's top scorer alongside Arthur Cabral, then a Fiorentina player. In total, the 2022/23 season ended with 22 goals and five assists in 52 matches.

The goalscoring instinct he showed in Basel attracted the interest of Burnley, which signed him permanently from Lausanne-Sport for their return to the Premier League. In his first adventure abroad, Amdouni scored six goals in 37 games in the 2023/24 season, which culminated in the Clarets' relegation to the Championship. In 2024/25, he scored one goal in two games in England's Second Division before moving to Benfica.

Son of a Turkish father and a Tunisian mother, the striker played one game for the Turkish Under-21s before opting to represent Switzerland, where he made 15 appearances for the Under-21s before making his senior international debut in a 2-1 win over Czechia on September 28, 2022. Scorer of six goals in the qualifying phase for the 2024 Euro, Amdouni was part of Switzerland's 26-man squad for the tournament in Germany, where he played in four matches.