Valmir Nafiu (; born 23 April 1994) is a

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Macedonia * Mac ...

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 mainly as a winger or striker.

Club career

Shkëndija

At the end of his debuting season, Nafiu garnered interest from

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

and

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 ...

. He went on trial where he impressed the Swiss club and Basel and Shkëndija reached a deal for Nafiu to remain in Switzerland before officially completing the transfer once he turned eighteen.

Basel

Nafiu officially joined on 23 April 2012, on his eighteenth birthday. He mainly played for the youth teams at Basel and was not capped at senior level. At Basel, Nafiu trained under

Thorsten Fink Thorsten Fink (born 29 October 1967) is a German football coach and a former footballer, who is the head coach of Belgian Pro League club KRC Genk. Playing career Fink began his career with Borussia Dortmund's reserve squad before moving to S ...

Hamburger SV

When Fink left Basel and took the managerial position at

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

, Nafiu followed suit. In 2012, Nafiu made his debut for Hamburg's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

. He made his

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

debut at 25 October 2014 against

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC () or Hertha Berlin, is a German professional football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football league system, German footbal ...

replacing

Pierre-Michel Lasogga Pierre-Michel Lasogga (born 15 December 1991) is a German professional footballer who plays as a centre-forward for German club Schalke 04 II. He represented Germany U21s at international level, and was also called up to the German senior na ...

after 74 minutes in a 3–0 away defeat. He added a further Bundesliga appearance against

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

on 9 November 2014, before he mutually terminated his contract with Hamburger SV in January 2015.

APOEL

On 27 January 2015, Nafiu signed a four-and-a-half-year contract with contract with Cypriot club

APOEL FC 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 ...

. He made his official debut on 31 January 2015, coming on as a 75th-minute substitute in APOEL's 1–0 away victory against

Nea Salamina Nea Salamis Famagusta or Nea Salamina Famagusta () is a Cypriot sports club based in Ammochostos (also known by its romanized name, Famagusta), Cyprus. The club is named after Salamis, Cyprus, Salamis (or Salamina), an ancient city near present- ...

in the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

. He scored his first official goal for APOEL on 21 March 2015, in his team's 2–2 home draw against

Apollon Limassol Apollon Limassol FC (, ''Apollon Lemesou'') is a Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has football, basketball and volleyball teams. Founded in 1954, Apollon FC currently plays in the Cypriot First Division and has won the championship tit ...

in the First Division play-offs. In his first season at APOEL, he appeared in twelve matches in all competitions and helped his team to win both the league title and the

2014–15 Cypriot Cup The 2014–15 Cypriot Cup was the 73rd edition of the Cypriot Cup. A total of 26 clubs entered the competition. It began on 29 October 2014 with the first round and concluded on 20 May 2015 with the final which was held at GSZ Stadium. APOEL clinc ...

. On 18 December 2015, APOEL announced that Nafiu's contract with the club was terminated by mutual consent.

Skënderbeu

In early 2016 Nafiu joined Albanian side

Skënderbeu Gjergj Kastrioti (17 January 1468), commonly known as Skanderbeg, was an Albanian feudal lord and military commander who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serb ...

, winning the 2015–16 league title but playing very little.

Renova

Nafiu returned to his native North Macedonia in summer 2016, signing with Renova. Over two seasons, he became a regular starter scoring 11 goals.

Shkëndija

Nafiu's performances for Renova attracted the attentions of his youth club Shkëndija and he returned to the club in 2018, winning the league title in his first season there.

Career statistics

Honours

Shkëndija *

Macedonian First League The Macedonian First Football League (), also called Macedonian First League, 1. MFL, and Prva Liga, is the highest professional football competition in Macedonia. It is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of t ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2018–19 APOEL *

: 2014–15 *

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup, formally known as the Cypriot Coca-Cola Cup of First and Second Division () for sponsorship purposes, is a Cypriot knockout football club competition, hosted annually by the Cyprus Football Association. First held in 1934, it i ...

: 2014–15

References

External links

APOEL official profile
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nafiu, Valmir 1994 births Living people Footballers from Tetovo Albanians in North Macedonia Men's association football forwards Macedonian men's footballers 21st-century Macedonian sportsmen North Macedonia men's youth international footballers North Macedonia men's under-21 international footballers Macedonian First Football League players Cypriot First Division players Kategoria Superiore players Swiss Super League players Bundesliga players Regionalliga players KF Shkëndija players FC Basel players Hamburger SV players Hamburger SV II players APOEL FC players KF Skënderbeu Korçë players KF Renova players FC Košice (2018) players FK Otrant-Olympic players FC Ferizaj players Macedonian expatriate men's footballers Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Albania Expatriate men's footballers in Albania Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia Expatriate men's footballers in Slovakia