Artur Lekbello (born 23 February 1966) is an Albanian retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

midfielder. His nickname, ''Tushe'', is a short form of his first name.

Playing career

Club

Lekbello played for Nëntori Tirana and left communist Albania in 1991, joining Greek side

Aris Thessaloniki Athlitikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis, means Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki (), is a major Greece, Greek multi-sport club founded on 25 March 1914 in Thessaloniki. Nicknamed ''God of War'', Aris was one of the strongest Greek clubs during t ...

alongside fellow Nëntori and national team midfielder

Mirel Josa Mirel Josa (born 1 June 1963) is an Albanian football coach and a former player. As a player, he played in the Greek Alpha Ethniki for Nea Kavala and Aris, as well as making 27 international appearances for the Albania national football team bet ...

International

He made his debut for

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

in an October 1987 European Championship qualification match against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and earned a total of 30 caps, scoring no goals. His final international was an October 1996

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

match against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

Managerial career

On 15 September 2012, Lekbello was named the new manager of

Tirana Tirana ( , ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in Albania, largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills, with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest ov ...

, replacing the Spaniard

Julián Rubio Julián Rubio Sánchez (born 28 January 1952) is a Spanish former football midfielder and manager. He appeared in 134 La Liga matches over six seasons (14 goals), mainly in representation of Sevilla. His professional career was closely associat ...

. Three days later, he officially signed the contract with the club whom he started his professional career. However, he resigned from the post later on 29 October following the poor results in the last four league matches.

Personal life

Lekbello is married and has 2 children. In 2012, he was diagnosed with a rare muscle disease, which doctors told him that he had not more than 3 years to live. In an interview on 13 May 2017, Lekbello stated that the disease is called "Muscle scarcity", which starts from hands or legs. After his illness was made public in the Greek media, it was reported that a friendly match will be played on 17 May between the veterans of

and Greece players that won the

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

to raise money for the treatment of the disease.

Honours

Albanian Superliga Kategoria Superiore (), also known as Abissnet Superiore for sponsorship reasons with internet service provider, Abissnet, is a professional league for men's association football clubs in Albania. At the top of the Albanian football league syste ...

(2): 1987–88, 1988–89

References

External links

* 1966 births Living people Footballers from Tirana Albanian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Albania men's international footballers KF Tirana players Aris Thessaloniki F.C. players Kategoria Superiore players Super League Greece players Albanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Albanian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Albanian football managers KF Tirana managers Kategoria Superiore managers 20th-century Albanian sportsmen {{Albania-footy-midfielder-stub