Ermedin Demirović, a Hamburg-born forward who plays for Bosnia and Herzegovina, scored a Champions League hat-trick for VfB Stuttgart in a 3-1 win over Viking on 9 September 2026. He was one of the leading scorers after matchday 1 with three goals.
Ermedin Demirović was born on 25 March 1998 in Germany and began playing at his hometown club Hamburger SV before joining the youth academy of RB Leipzig in 2014. He played mainly in Leipzig’s reserve team before signing a four-year deal with Alavés in 2017.
He made his professional debut in a Copa del Rey tie against Formentera on 3 January 2018 and scored a brace. Three weeks later he made his league debut against Barcelona, and on 6 May scored his first league goal in a win over Málaga. He was then loaned to French side Sochaux in 2018, to Almería in January 2019 and to Swiss club St. Gallen in September of that year.
In July 2020 he signed for SC Freiburg and made his Bundesliga debut against VfL Wolfsburg, scoring his first goal for the club on 20 December in a win over Hertha BSC. In July 2022 he switched to FC Augsburg on a contract until June 2026, scoring his first goal for them against Mainz on 20 August, and in August 2023 he was named team captain.
In July 2024 he moved to VfB Stuttgart on a four-year deal. He made his debut in the DFL-Supercup against Bayer Leverkusen on 17 August and scored on his league debut a week later against Freiburg. He made his Champions League debut away at Real Madrid on 17 September and scored his first goal in the competition two months later against Red Star Belgrade. He scored his first career hat-trick on 5 April 2025 in a win over VfL Bochum, and won his first trophy on 24 May, when Stuttgart beat Arminia Bielefeld in the DFB-Pokal final.
For Bosnia and Herzegovina he represented the country at all youth levels. He received his first senior call-up in November 2018 but had to wait until 24 March 2021 for his debut, in a World Cup qualifier against Finland. He scored his first senior international goal on 23 September 2022, a winner against Montenegro in the Nations League, and has since won more than 40 caps. In June 2026 he was named in Bosnia’s squad for the 2026 World Cup and made his tournament debut against Canada on 12 June.
On 9 September 2026 he scored his first Champions League hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Viking, becoming only the second Bosnian to score a Champions League hat-trick, after Edin Džeko in 2018. After matchday 1 he and Barcelona’s Ferran Torres led the scoring charts with three goals each. Stuttgart sit among the sixteen teams on three points, and visit Slovan Bratislava on Wednesday, and Demirović will be eager to add to his total. His first senior call-up for Bosnia had come in November 2018 for a Nations League game against Austria and a friendly against Spain, and he made his Alavés debut in a game against Formentera, where the brace came at once.
Image: The Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart, home of Ermedin Demirović’s club VfB Stuttgart (file photo, 2011; not a photo of Demirović). Photo: MSeses / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
