Fatmir Vata (born 20 September 1971) is an Albanian former professional footballer who played primarily as an attacking midfielder. He began his footballing career with local side 31 Korriku, before moving to Tirana in 1991 where he would remain for two seasons before moving abroad. He joined Croatian club Orijent before moving to Samobor two years later in 1995, where he'd remain for three seasons. Vata joined

Prva HNL The Hrvatska nogometna liga () ( en, Croatian football league), also known as HNL or for sponsorship reasons the SuperSport HNL, is the top Croatian professional football league competition, established in 1992. Previously, it was called Prva H ...

side

Slaven Belupo Nogometni klub Slaven Belupo ( en, Slaven Belupo Football Club), often referred to as NK Slaven Belupo, Slaven Belupo or simply Slaven, and known internationally as NK Slaven Koprivnica, is a Croatian professional football club based in the city ...

and spent one season with the club before moving to Vukovar '91. He joined newly promoted

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

and German side Waldhof Mannheim in January 2000 where he established himself in the first team and helped the side to a fourth-place finish in the

2000–01 2. Bundesliga The 2000–01 2. Bundesliga was the 27th season of the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of the German football league system. 1. FC Nürnberg, Borussia Mönchengladbach and FC St. Pauli were promoted to the Bundesliga while VfL Osnabrück, SSV U ...

, just one point behind automatic promotion. Vata is best known for his time at

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

, which he joined in 2001 and helped the club promotion to the Bundesliga in 2002. Despite suffering relegation back to

, he helped his side achieve promotion once again the following year. He left the club at the end of the 2006–07 season after 140 games and 20 goals, making him the current third-highest foreign appearance maker for the club. Vata moved to 2. Bundesliga side TuS Koblenz where he spent two years before joining

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

side Wuppertaler SV in 2009, where he retired at the end of the 2009–10 season. He came out of retirement to play for amateur side FC 08 Boffzen in 2013.

Club career

Vata was born in Rrëshen, Albania to a Catholic family. In 2004, he became Albania's Footballer of the Year. In August 2009, Vata joined Wuppertaler SV from TuS Koblenz for the 2009–10 season on a free transfer.

International career

He made his debut for Albania in an April 1996 friendly match against

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

and earned a total of 17 caps, scoring no goals. His final international was an October 2002 European Championship qualification match against Russia.

International statistics

Post-playing career

Following his retirement Vata worked as a coach for

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

and VfL Bochum.

Honours

;Individual * Albania's Footballer of the Year: 2004

References

External links

* 1971 births Living people People from Mirditë Association football midfielders Albanian footballers Albania international footballers KS Burreli players KF Tirana players HNK Orijent players NK Samobor players NK Slaven Belupo players HNK Vukovar '91 players SV Waldhof Mannheim players Arminia Bielefeld players TuS Koblenz players Wuppertaler SV players Kategoria e Parë players Kategoria Superiore players Croatian Football League players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Albanian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Croatia Albanian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Expatriate footballers in Germany Albanian expatriate sportspeople in Germany {{Albania-footy-midfielder-stub