Sokol Kushta (born 17 April 1964) is an Albanian retired

football player 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 ...

, who was arguably one of his country's best players in the latter half of the 1980s and the early 1990s and one of the first to be allowed by the communist party to play abroad. Kushta was a striker and was ranked 30th in the 1987

European Footballer of the Year The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French magazine ''France Football'' since 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. Conceived by sports writers Gabriel Hanot and Jac ...

, matching in the ranking players such as

Alessandro Altobelli Alessandro Altobelli (; born 28 November 1955) is a former professional Italian footballer who played as a forward, and who won the 1982 World Cup with Italy. Nicknamed ''Spillo'' ("Needle") for his slender build, Altobelli was a prolific goal ...

Glenn Hoddle Glenn Hoddle (born 27 October 1957) is an English former football player and manager. He currently works as a television pundit and commentator for ITV Sport and TNT Sports. He played as a midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, Monaco, Chelsea and ...

, and

Rudi Völler Rudolf "Rudi" Völler (; born 13 April 1960) is a German professional football manager and former player, who is currently the director of the Germany national team. In Germany, he is nicknamed "Tante Käthe" ("Aunt Kathy"), a name bestowed upon ...

Club career

Born in

Vlorë Vlorë ( ; ; sq-definite, Vlora) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, third most populous city of Albania and seat of Vlorë County and Vlorë Municipality. Located in southwestern Albania, Vlorë sprawls on the Bay of Vlorë and is surr ...

, Kushta spent the large part of his Albanian league career with hometown club Flamurtari during the 1980s, the club's golden years alongside fellow international players like Alfred Zijai, Kreshnik Çipi, Petro Ruçi,

Alfred Ferko Alfred Ferko (born 15 October 1964) is a former Albanian footballer who played as a midfielder for the Albania national team. After retiring as a player, he became a coach. Club career As soon as Albanians were free to leave the country after t ...

and Rrapo Taho. In the 1987–88 season, he and his Flamurtari teammates managed to knock out

Partizan Belgrade Jugoslovensko sportsko društvo Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Југословенско спортско друштво Партизан, lit=Yugoslav Sports Society Partizan), commonly abbreviated as JSD Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, ЈСД Партизан, lin ...

and Wismut Aue, before losing for a second successive year to Spanish giants

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

in the round of 16 in the UEFA Cup.Alfrd Zijai: “Ishim një brez i artë”
– Telegraf He also had three seasons with army club

Partizani Tirana Futboll Klub Partizani is an Albanian professional football club based in Tirana, that competes in the Kategoria Superiore. Founded in 1946, the club was historically affiliated to the Albanian army. Partizani's home ground is the newly built sta ...

. One of the most high-profile Albanian players at the time, Kushta moved abroad following the

fall of communism The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. Th ...

and joined Greek side Iraklis Saloniki alongside fellow international and Flamurtari goalkeeper Anesti Arapi and later played for

Apollon Kalamarias Apollon Kalamarias (Greek: Απόλλων Καλαμαριάς) is a Greek sports club from Kalamaria, a suburb of Thessaloniki. It was founded in 1926. The club is named after Apollo, the mythical Greek god. Its colors are red and black. Histor ...

and in

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

for Ethnikos Achnas and

Olympiakos Nicosia Olympiakos Nicosia (, ''Olympiakos Lefkosias'') is a Cypriot football club based in Nicosia and competes in the . The club was founded in 1931, and is a founding member of the Cyprus Football Association. The club colors are black and green. ...

. Kushta is the current joint-top goalscorer of Albanian Supercup along with

KF Tirana Klubi i Futbollit Tirana is an Albanian professional football club based in the country's capital city, Tirana, that competes in the Kategoria Superiore, the top tier of Albanian football. The men's football club is part of the multi-discipli ...

's Mahir Halili, having scored a hat-trick in the 1990 edition against

Dinamo Tirana Football Club Dinamo City, commonly referred to as Dinamo City and colloquially known as Dinamo, is an Albanian professional football club based out of Tirana. They compete in the Kategoria Superiore, the top tier of Albanian football. Founded i ...

International career

Kushta 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 a March 1987 European Championship qualification match away at

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 31 caps, scoring a then national record 10 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 ...

Honours

;Partizani *

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 ...

: 1986–87 ;Flamurtari *

: 1990–91

References

External links

* 1964 births Living people Footballers from Vlorë Albanian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Albania men's international footballers Flamurtari FC players FK Partizani Tirana players Albanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Iraklis F.C. (Thessaloniki) players Athinaikos F.C. players Albanian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Apollon Kalamarias F.C. players Albanian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Olympiakos Nicosia players Ethnikos Achna FC players Super League Greece players Cypriot First Division players Albanian football managers Flamurtari FC managers 20th-century Albanian sportsmen {{Albania-footy-forward-stub