Atdhe Nuhiu (; born 29 July 1989) is a Kosovan professional

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 ...

coach and former player who is the assistant manager of

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

club

SCR Altach Sportclub Rheindorf Altach, also known as Rheindorf Altach, SCR Altach or simply SCRA, is an Football in Austria, Austrian association football club based in Altach, Vorarlberg. It plays in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club is currently ...

and Kosovo national team.

Club career

Early years

Atdhe Nuhiu was born on 29 July 1989 in

Pristina Pristina or Prishtina ( , ), . is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and District of Pristina, district. In antiquity, the area of Pristina was part of the Dardanian Kingdo ...

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

parents originally from

Preševo Preševo ( sr-Cyrl, Прешево, ; , ) is a town and municipality located in the Pčinja District of southern Serbia. As of the 2022 census, the municipality has a population of 33,449 inhabitants. It is the southernmost town in Central Serbia a ...

. His father moved to Austria in the same year, and Nuhiu and his family later joined him there. He began his career at Sportunion Ried im Traunkreis before moving to

Wels Wels (; Central Bavarian: ''Wös'') is a city in Upper Austria, on the Traun River near Linz. It is the county seat of Wels-Land, and with a population of approximately 60,000, the List of cities and towns in Austria, eighth largest city in Aus ...

in 1999. At the

Regionalliga A (, plural ) is a regional league in numerous Sports governing body, sports governing bodies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, usually located in the upper or middle tiers of the sports leagues. The term is often associated with the Germa ...

club, he played 30 matches and scored 11 goals during the 2007–08 season.

Austria Kärnten

In the summer of 2008, Nuhiu signed with

club Austria Kärnten. He made his professional Bundesliga debut on 25 July 2008, against

LASK Linzer Athletik-Sport-Klub, commonly known as LASK (), or Linzer ASK, is an Austrian professional football club based in Upper-Austrian state capital Linz. It is the oldest football club in that region, and plays in the Austrian Football Bundes ...

, coming on as a substitute in the 68th minute for

Manuel Weber Manuel Weber (born 28 August 1985 in Villach) is an Austrian footballer who plays for SV Rosegg. Club career He formerly played for FC Kärnten. He was the captain of Austria Kärnten until he signed with Sturm Graz in June 2009. In summer 201 ...

and scoring his first Bundesliga goal 15 minutes later. The match ended in a 3–2 loss.

Loan to Ried

On 31 August 2009, on the deadline day, Nuhiu completed a transfer to

SV Ried SV Ried, commonly known as SV Guntamatic Ried for sponsorship reasons, is an Austrian association football club based in Ried im Innkreis, Upper Austria. The team plays its home matches at Josko Arena, a stadium with a capacity of 7,680. The t ...

on loan for the 2009–10 season. He scored his first goal for the team on 23 September 2009 in team's 1–1 away draw at

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the most trophies of any Aust ...

, just eleven days after making his debut in a losing effort against

SV Mattersburg SV Mattersburg was an Austrian association football club from Mattersburg, Burgenland. History The club was formed in 1922 and played its home games at the 17,100 capacity Pappelstadion. The club played in the Bundesliga The Bunde ...

Rapid Wien

On 8 June 2010, Nuhiu joined fellow

side

SK Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English language, English, is an Football in Austria, Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian cham ...

on a three-year contract with an option of a further one. His salary was reported to be €1.2 million per season, plus various bonuses depending on his performances. He choose squad number 15, and made his competitive debut on 22 August in the Bundesliga matchday 5 against SV Mattersburg, partnering his patriot

Hamdi Salihi Hamdi Abdullah Salihi (born 19 January 1984) is an Albanian retired professional footballer who played as a forward. He is the assistant manager of Albania. Nicknamed 'The Bomber' by his former international coach Otto Barić who would compar ...

in an eventual 2–0 home win. Nuhiu opened his scoring account later on 13 November by scoring a last-minute equaliser against the same opponent, with the match ending 2–2.

Sheffield Wednesday

Nuhiu signed a three-year contract on a free transfer for Sheffield Wednesday on 25 July 2013. On 3 August 2013, Nuhiu scored on his debut against

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

. Nuhiu also scored in the comprehensive 6–0 win over

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

on 11 January 2014. On 1 March 2014 he scored against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

from penalty spot in a match finished in the victory 1–0. On 12 April 2014, Nuhiu scored twice to give his team a 3–3 draw against

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

, where he was included in the starting line up and scored respectively the 2nd goal in the 72nd minute and the 3rd in the 5th minute of second-half stoppage time. Nuhiu scored in the next consecutive fixture on 17 April 2014 against

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth ( ) is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. ...

finished in the victory 2–4, where Nuhiu scored the opening goal of the match in the 16th minute. He continued his scoring form for another consecutive match, as he scored in the 3–2 home defeat of Sheffield Wednesday against

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Charlton, south-east London, England. The team compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Their home ground is ...

on 21 April 2014, where Nuhiu scored a quick goal in the 3rd minute and also gave the assist for the second goal scored by

Chris Maguire Christopher Patrick Joseph Maguire (born 16 January 1989) is a Scottish professional footballer who last played as a striker for club Eastleigh. He made two international appearances for Scotland in 2011. Club career Aberdeen Maguire made h ...

in the 8th minute. On 23 August 2014, Nuhiu scored twice in the 2–3 victory against

, helping the team to extended their unbeaten Championship start to four matches. On the last day of the season, Nuhiu scored an important stoppage-time equalizer which meant opponents

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

came second and Bournemouth won the league. During this season, Nuhiu was Sheffield Wednesday's top scorer with 11 goals in all competitions. On the final day of the 2017–18 season, Sheffield Wednesday defeated Norwich 5–1 for the second successive year in a row and in that game Wednesday won a penalty in the remaining minutes of the game and Nuhiu scored and completed the hat-trick and got his first hat-trick in his professional footballing career. That goal made Nuhiu Wednesday's top scorer at the end of the season. In May 2018, he signed a two-year contract extension running through May 2020; Nuhiu left Wednesday after the end of the 2019–20 season.

APOEL

On 11 September 2020, it was announced that he had signed for Cypriot club

APOEL APOEL FC (; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") is a Cypriot professio ...

. After one season his contracted was terminated on 18 June 2021.

SCR Altach

On 30 June 2021, Nuhiu signed a two-year contract with

, marking his return to the Austrian Bundesliga. He made his competitive debut on 17 July, in the first round of the 2021–22 edition of the

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for a record 27th time. Wo ...

, also scoring his first goal in a surprising 2–1 loss to third-tier

side

SC Kalsdorf SC, Sc or sc may refer to: Arts and media * ''Sim City'', a city-building simulator game * Snapchat, a multimedia messaging app * Soccer club, another name for a football club in association football * Social club, a type of club. * ''Soulcalibu ...

. He made his league debut in a 1–0 defeat to

at home a week later on 24 July, where he played 63 minutes before being replaced by Noah Bischof. His first goal came against his former club Rapid Wien on 15 August, a converted penalty-kick in injury time to secure a 2–1 win. He announced his retirement as a player on 13 October 2024.

International career

Nuhiu has played for the Austria U21 side, however on 10 September 2009 he made declarations to the media that he would not play for

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, but rather 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 ...

as it is his dream to play for his own nation. In addition, when he scored two goals against the Albanian U21s in a qualifier match, he refused to celebrate. On that occasion he was wearing red-and-black boots to honor

. In an interview in April 2014, Nuhiu declared that it is his only intention to play for Austria, although he admitted that he had been in talks with other associations previously. On 7 November 2014, Nuhiu reiterated his desire to play for Austria, should a call-up arise. On 18 November 2010, Nuhiu stated in an interview to the media that the problem with playing for Albania was citizenship, as he had

Austrian citizenship Austrian nationality law details the conditions by which an individual is a national of Austria. The primary law governing these requirements is the Nationality Law, which came into force on 31 July 1985. Austria is a member state of the Europ ...

and to receive Albanian citizenship he needed to give it up, as Austria did not permit

dual citizenship Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one sovereign state, country under its nationality law, nationality and citizenship law as a national or cit ...

..:Presheva.com Web Portal:. - Atdhe Nuhiu: Shpresoj të jem së shpejti pjesë e Kombëtares Kuq e zi
Media reported that he was called by the coach of Albania, Gianni de Biasi, for the friendly match against Armenia, on 14 August, but De Biasi did not include him in the final call up. However, on 20 August 2013 media reported that Nuhiu had started the procedures to get an

Albanian passport The Albanian passport () is a travel document issued by the Ministry of the Interior to Albanian citizens to enable them to travel abroad. They are also used as proof of identity within the country, alongside national identity cards (). The pa ...

in order to be able to represent the senior Albania national team in the future.

Kosovo

On 19 September 2014, Nuhiu returned declaring that he would play for

, when it was fully recognised by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

and

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

. On 20 September 2016, Muharrem Sahiti, the assistant manager of

, said that Nuhiu was in Kosovo to complete the procedures of the Kosovo passport. On 4 January 2017, Nuhiu announced that he had received Kosovo citizenship and is ready for the next challenge. On 20 March 2017, he received a call-up from Kosovo for a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, made his début after being named in the starting line-up and scored his side's only goal during a 2–1 defeat. On 16 May 2021, Nuhiu through an

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

post announced his international retirement. He collected 19 caps between 2017 and 2020 for Kosovo and scored three goals.

Coaching career

On 13 October 2024, Nuhiu's retirement was announced, and he joined new head coach Fabio Ingolitsch's coaching staff at

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Kosovo score listed first, score column indicates score after each Nuhiu goal''

References

External links

*
Sheffield Wednesday profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuhiu, Atdhe 1989 births Living people Footballers from Pristina Kosovo Albanians Kosovan emigrants to Austria Austrian people of Kosovan descent Austrian people of Albanian descent Men's association football forwards Kosovan men's footballers Kosovo men's international footballers Austrian men's footballers Austria men's youth international footballers 21st-century Austrian sportsmen Austria men's under-21 international footballers FC Wels players Austrian Regionalliga players SK Austria Kärnten players SV Ried players SK Rapid Wien players SC Rheindorf Altach players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Eskişehirspor footballers Süper Lig players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players English Football League players APOEL FC players Cypriot First Division players Austrian expatriate men's footballers Kosovan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Kosovan expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in England Austrian expatriate sportspeople in England Kosovan expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Kosovan expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Association football coaches