Marash Kumbulla (born 8 February 2000) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for club

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

. Born in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, he plays for the Albania national team.

Club career

Kumbulla made his professional debut for

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Hellas Verona (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Verona, Veneto, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won ...

on 12 August 2018, starting in a 2–0 away loss to

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

in the

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

. On 17 September 2020, Kumbulla joined

on loan with an obligation to buy. On 1 February 2024, he moved on loan to

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town is best known for being the centre of the Ita ...

. On 17 August 2024, Kumbulla was announced at

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

side

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as RCD Espanyol, is a Spanish professional sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The club competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spa ...

on a one-year loan deal.

International career

Kumbulla made his senior debut for the Albania national team on 14 October 2019, in a 4–0 away win against

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

in a Euro 2020 qualifier. He came on for

Ardian Ismajli Ardian Ismajli (born 30 September 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Empoli. Born in Kosovo, he plays for the Albania national team. Club career Early career Ismajli went through the ranks of First Football ...

in the 89th minute.

Personal life

Kumbulla was born in

Peschiera del Garda Peschiera del Garda (; ; , ''Arilica'') is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Verona, in Veneto, Italy. When Lombardy-Venetia was under Austrian rule, Peschiera was the northwest anchor of the four fortified towns constituting the Quadrila ...

, Italy to

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 from

Shkodër Shkodër ( , ; sq-definite, Shkodra; historically known as Scodra or Scutari) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, fifth-most-populous city of Albania and the seat of Shkodër County and Shkodër Municipality. Shkodër has been List of o ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Roma *

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

: 2021–22 *

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

runner-up:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

Marash Kumbulla
at the AS Roma website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kumbulla, Marash 2000 births Living people Footballers from the Province of Verona Albanian men's footballers 21st-century Albanian sportsmen Italian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Serie A players Serie B players Hellas Verona FC players AS Roma players US Sassuolo Calcio players RCD Espanyol footballers La Liga players UEFA Conference League–winning players Albania men's youth international footballers Albania men's under-21 international footballers Albania men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2024 players Albanian expatriate men's footballers Italian expatriate men's footballers Albanian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Italian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Italian people of Albanian descent 21st-century Italian sportsmen