Gazmend Sinani (; 22 June 1991 – 23 June 2018) was a Kosovan professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player who last played as a

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

for Leeds Force and the Kosovo national team.

Early life

Sinani was born 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 ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

Kosovo Albanian The Albanians of Kosovo (, ), also commonly called Kosovo Albanians, Kosovan Albanians or Kosovars (), constitute the largest ethnic group in Kosovo. Kosovo Albanians belong to the ethnic Albanian sub-group of Ghegs, who inhabit the north of ...

parents from

Podujevë Podujevë or Besianë ( sq-definite, Podujeva or ''Besiana'') or Podujevo is a List of cities in Kosovo, city and Municipalities of Kosovo, municipality in the District of Pristina, Pristina District in Kosovo. Podujevë is the largest municip ...

and he carried Kosovan and Turkish passports.

Professional career

Return to Sigal Prishtina

Last season with

Kosovo Basketball Superleague The Kosovo Basketball Superleague (Albanian: Superliga e Kosovës në Basketboll) and known as the ProCredit Superliga due to sponsorship reasons is the top men's professional basketball league in Kosovo. Basketball Superleague was founded in 1991 ...

club

Sigal Prishtina Klubi i Basketbollit Prishtina ( English: ''Basketball Club Prishtina''), officially known as Sigal Prishtina due to sponsorship reasons, is a Kosovar professional basketball club based in Pristina. The team currently competes in the Kosovo Sup ...

, where he won three trophies as winner of

, winner of Kosovo Cup and the winner of

Balkan League The League of the Balkans was a quadruple alliance formed by a series of bilateral treaties concluded in 1912 between the Eastern Orthodox kingdoms of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, and directed against the Ottoman Empire, which still ...

. In the local league he averaged 6.0 points and 5.6 rebounds while in BIBL he had 1.3 points and 2.3 rebounds.

Bashkimi Prizren

On 11 September 2016, Sinani joined

side

Bashkimi Prizren Klubi i Basketbollit Bashkimi, also known as K.B. Bashkimi or simply Bashkimi , is a professional basketball team based in Prizren, Kosovo. Bashkimi is the oldest basketball team in Kosovo and competes in the top professional men's basketball lea ...

Muğla Ormanspor

On 3 November 2016, Sinani joined

Turkish Basketball First League Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

side Muğla Ormanspor.

Rahoveci

On 29 November 2017, Sinani joined

side Rahoveci.

Leeds Force

On 26 January 2018, Sinani moved for the first time outside the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

and joined

British Basketball League The British Basketball League (BBL) was a men's professional basketball sports league, league in Great Britain. Since its establishment in 1987 the BBL represented the highest level of basketball competition within the United Kingdom. The orga ...

side Leeds Force and signed a contract to end of 2017–18 season.

International career

Sinani was one of the first players of

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 ...

. On 31 August 2016, he made his official debut with Kosovo in a

EuroBasket 2017 qualification This article describes the qualification procedure for EuroBasket 2017. Qualification format All teams which didn't qualify yet for EuroBasket 2017 were divided into six groups of four teams and one more of three. The winners of each group and the ...

match against

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

Death

On 23 June 2018, one day after his 27th birthday, Sinani suffered serious injuries in a

car accident A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. T ...

in the early hours in

Gjakova Gjakova or Đakovica, ) and Đakovica ( sr-Cyrl, Ђаковица, ) is the sixth largest city of Kosovo and seat of the Gjakova Municipality and the District of Gjakova, Gjakova District. According to the 2024 census, the municipality of Gjakov ...

, which also injured three other players of Kosovo national team: Altin Morina, Fisnik Rugova and Granit Rugova, along with physiotherapist Kujtim Shala. Sinani died as a result of his injuries, but all others in the accident survived.

References

External links

Gazmend Sinani
at EuroBasket.com
Gazmend Sinani
at

Basketligan Svenska Basketligan, or the Swedish Basketball League (SBL), is the premier league for professional basketball in Sweden. The league was originally established in 1992 as Basketligan and was known as that prior to the season of 2006–07, but whe ...

1991 births 2018 deaths Kosovo Albanians Basketball players from Pristina Centers (basketball) Fenerbahçe men's basketball players KB Prishtina players Bashkimi Prizren players KB Rahoveci players Kosovan men's basketball players Road incident deaths in Kosovo Kosovan expatriate basketball people in Turkey Kosovan expatriate basketball people in Sweden Kosovan expatriate basketball people in England Malbas players {{Kosovo-basketball-bio-stub