Xherdan Shaqiri Wife: Is He Married? Dhurata Ahmetaj

Xherdan Shaqiri does not have a wife, as far as is publicly known: no wedding has ever been reported, and as far as we could find he has not presented a partner in public. The woman most often called "Xherdan Shaqiri's wife" online is Dhurata Ahmetaj, a pop singer from Kosovo. In 2020, when he played for Liverpool, a Kosovar magazine reported that the two were dating, but neither of them ever confirmed it.

As of November 2026, Shaqiri is 35 and captain of FC Basel, the club where he started, and he has retired from the Swiss national team. In this article, OhMyFootball goes through what is actually known about Dhurata Ahmetaj and Shaqiri's private life, with dates and sources, and leaves out the guesses that many websites present as facts.

Who is Xherdan Shaqiri's wife?

Xherdan Shaqiri is not known to be married. We could not find any reliable report of a wedding or an engagement, in Swiss, Albanian or English-language media, and we found no occasion on which the player presented a partner. He keeps his private life out of the public eye, and he has no children as far as is publicly known.

That has not stopped fans from searching for "Shaqiri wife" for years. Most of those searches lead back to one name: Dhurata Ahmetaj. Many websites still describe her as his wife or his long-term girlfriend, but the reporting behind those claims dates from 2020 and was never confirmed by either of them.

Dhurata Ahmetaj and Xherdan Shaqiri: what is known

In April 2020, when Shaqiri played for Liverpool, the Kosovar showbiz magazine Prive.al reported that he was dating Dhurata Ahmetaj. The Swiss paper Blick picked up the story and noted that neither side had confirmed anything. As far as we could find, neither of them has spoken about it publicly since, and no reliable source has ever confirmed a relationship. Dhurata Ahmetaj is not his wife, and nothing reliable suggests they are a couple in 2026.

Is Xherdan Shaqiri married or in a relationship in 2026?

As of November 2026, no wife, fiancée or girlfriend of Xherdan Shaqiri has been confirmed publicly. In the interviews we found in which he talked about love, he said he was single. In January 2014, while at Bayern Munich, he said on the Swiss TV programme "Persönlich bei Claudia Lässer" that he did not have a girlfriend at the time, that finding true love was difficult and that, like everyone, he wanted to start a family one day. He added that it mattered to him that his family would accept his future partner, as the Munich daily Abendzeitung reported on 2 January 2014.

Two years later, in a Blick interview published in January 2016, he confirmed he was still single and said he lived very well on his own. In the same interview he described his family's bond as extremely close and said family and friends often came to visit him in England.

Since then, he has given many interviews about football, his family and his roots, but we could not find one in which he presented a partner. That is why "is Xherdan Shaqiri married?" has no other honest answer than this: not as far as anyone outside his circle knows.

Who is Dhurata Ahmetaj?

Dhurata Ahmetaj is a Kosovar Albanian pop singer and social media personality. According to Albanian Wikipedia, she was born on 16 November 1992 and went to school in Prizren, in the south of Kosovo. That makes her 33 in early November 2026, and she turns 34 on 16 November 2026. In April 2020, Blick described her as 27, which matches that date.

She is about a year younger than Shaqiri, who was born on 10 October 1991.

Dhurata Ahmetaj's music career

According to Albanian Wikipedia, Dhurata first appeared in public in 2010 at the Top Channel festival Top Fest with the song "Veç ty të dua", and returned to Top Fest in 2011 with "Një natë". Her professional career took off in 2013, when she started working with the singer Blero and his music studio. Her best-known early hit is "Ama veç pak" (2013), recorded with Presioni. In 2014 she released an album named after herself, "Dhurata".

Her official YouTube channel, which had about 14,400 subscribers when we checked in November 2026, also hosts the videos for "If You Like It", "Bone pa mu", "Gabim" and "D". Her most recent official video there is "A po vjen", released on 31 August 2018, with music by Pluto and lyrics and melody by Yll Limani. It had more than 500,000 views in November 2026.

Since 2018 she has released no new video on that channel, and her public activity since then has been mostly on Instagram, where she shares fashion, travel and lifestyle photos.

Dhurata Ahmetaj Instagram

Dhurata Ahmetaj's Instagram handle is @dhurataahmetaj. The account is verified and had about 558,000 followers and 339 posts when we checked in November 2026. Xherdan Shaqiri is on Instagram as @xherdanshaqiri.

Who is Xherdan Shaqiri?

Xherdan Shaqiri was born on 10 October 1991 in Gjilan, in present-day Kosovo, to Kosovar Albanian parents. In 1992 the family emigrated to Switzerland and settled in Augst, near Basel. His father worked in restaurants and on road construction and his mother worked as a cleaner, and Shaqiri has described a difficult childhood on an old farm. He is known as one of the most gifted Swiss players of his generation, nicknamed the "Alpine Messi".

His career so far:

2001 to 2012: FC Basel, where he came through the academy and won three Swiss league titles in a row, from 2010 to 2012.
2012 to January 2015: Bayern Munich, where he won the 2013 Champions League and the Bundesliga.
January 2015: Inter Milan, a short spell of six months.
2015 to 2018: Stoke City, who paid a club-record fee of about £12 million.
2018 to 2021: Liverpool, who triggered his £13.5 million release clause. He won the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League in 2019/20 with Jürgen Klopp's side.
2021 to 2022: Olympique Lyonnais.
February 2022 to August 2024: Chicago Fire in MLS. The contract was ended by mutual agreement on 14 August 2024.
August 2024: back at FC Basel on a three-year deal running until summer 2027.

His return was a big success. In 2024/25 Basel won their first Swiss league title since 2017, and on 1 June 2025 they completed the double by beating FC Biel 4-1 in the Swiss Cup final, with Shaqiri scoring a penalty. He finished that Super League season as the top scorer with 18 goals, the first Swiss player to top the scoring chart since 2018, according to blue News.

He played for Switzerland from 2010 to 2024, at four World Cups and three European Championships, and scored a memorable goal against Scotland at Euro 2024. He retired from international football on 15 July 2024 with 125 caps and 32 goals.

As of November 2026 he is still playing: he is Basel's captain in the 2026/27 season, and in October 2026 the club's sporting director Valentin Stocker told the Basler Zeitung that talks about his future had been constructive, with his contract running until the end of the season.

The autumn of 2026 has been harder for Basel. After a 3-0 defeat at FC Vaduz on 11 October 2026, Shaqiri, as captain, criticised his team's mentality and said every player had to improve a great deal, according to watson. Retirement does not seem to be on his mind: in a September 2025 interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, reported by blue News, he said he was not thinking about it and still wanted to win more, and that he sees himself as an entrepreneur once his playing days are over.

His Kosovar roots remain important to him. In May 2025 he was among the guests at the state banquet in Bern for Kosovo's President Vjosa Osmani, during the first state visit to Switzerland by a Kosovar head of state, according to Blick and Swissinfo.

In this episode of Stoke City's Potters' Pod, recorded at Basel's St. Jakob-Park and published in November 2026, Shaqiri looks back on his three years at Stoke, his humble beginnings and his arrival in the Premier League. If you follow his teammates' partners, you can also read about Granit Xhaka's wife Leonita Lekaj, Manuel Akanji's wife Melanie Windler and, from the Liverpool years, Mohamed Salah's wife Magi Sadeq.

Facts about Dhurata Ahmetaj and Xherdan Shaqiri

Xherdan Shaqiri is not known to be married and has no children as far as is publicly known.
Dhurata Ahmetaj was reported to be dating him in April 2020, when he played for Liverpool.
Neither of them ever confirmed the relationship.
Dhurata was born on 16 November 1992, according to Albanian Wikipedia, and went to school in Prizren, Kosovo.
She is a pop singer whose best-known early hit is "Ama veç pak" (2013), with Presioni, and she released the album "Dhurata" in 2014.
Her Instagram handle is @dhurataahmetaj.
Shaqiri was born on 10 October 1991 in Gjilan, Kosovo, and grew up near Basel.
He is FC Basel's captain in 2026/27, with a contract until summer 2027.

Frequently asked questions about Xherdan Shaqiri's wife

Who is Xherdan Shaqiri's wife?

Xherdan Shaqiri has no known wife. No wedding has ever been reported, and the woman often described as his wife online, the singer Dhurata Ahmetaj, was only linked to him in 2020.

Is Xherdan Shaqiri married?

Not as far as is publicly known. As of November 2026, no marriage or engagement has been reported by reliable media, and, as far as we could find, Shaqiri has not presented a partner in public.

Who is Xherdan Shaqiri's girlfriend?

No girlfriend of Shaqiri has been confirmed publicly. Dhurata Ahmetaj was reported to be dating him in 2020, but neither of them ever confirmed it.

Are Dhurata Ahmetaj and Xherdan Shaqiri still together?

There is no reliable evidence that they were ever a couple. A relationship was reported in April 2020, but neither of them confirmed it, and no reliable source has confirmed it since.