Foto Strakosha

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox football biography

Fotaq "Foto" Strakosha (born 29 March 1965) is an Albanian retired goalkeeper and current goalkeeping coach of Lazio Youth.[1]

Strakosha is regarded as one of Albania's most popular and greatest goalkeepers. In his 20-years playing career he played with 11 different clubs, initially in Albania before moving in Greece in 1991 to spend the majority of his career there until his retirement in 2005. He captained the Albania national team for a number of years before his retirement in 2005. He became the most ever capped Albanian player having 73 caps to his name for the Albania national team from 1990 to 2005.

Club career

Strakosha started his senior career for Minatori (now KF Memaliaj) in 1985 beforing moving to Albanian giants Dinamo Tirana.[2] In his first season at Dinamo he won Albanian Cup and Albanian Supercup eventually. The next season was even more successful as he won all three competitions Albanian Superliga, Albanian Cup and Albanian Supercup. After another half-season with Dinamo, he moved to Greece playing initially for PAS Giannina for the remainder of the 1990–91 season. Then he moved immediately in Piraeus, playing for both teams Ethnikos Piraeus for 2 years and Olympiacos for other 4 years. During his time at Olympiacos he was always at top 3 best teams in Greece top-flight winning the title in his last season 1996–97. Then he signed for fellow top-flight side Panionios where he would play for 2 seasons, becoming a starter and winning the Greek Cup in his first season. He left Panionios to spend another 3 years and a half at top-flight joining Ionikos to play for 3 years before moving to Kallithea to spend the first half of the 2002–03 season. Then he moved for a year at Greece second top-flight playing for Kalamata for the remainder of the 2002–03 season and first half of the 2003–04 season for Ethnikos Asteras. He was returned in top-flight joining Proodeftiki for the remainder of the 2003–04 season prior moving once more at Panionios in the next season to end his playing career.[3]

International career

Strakosha was Albania's national team goalkeeper from 1990 to 2005. He made his debut on 30 May 1990 and retired on 13 October 2005.

Strakosha was first called up to the Albania senior team by coach Agron Sulaj for a Euro 1992 qualifier against Iceland in May 1990.

On the day of his first international game, he was already 25 years and 62 days old. The reason for such a late debut on the international stage was a surplus of qualified keepers in the Albanian international squads like the veteran Perlat Musta and the very promising youngster Blendi Nallbani.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Due to Albania's staunch communist rule, despite his talent, Strakosha was playing in his country's domestic league as every single player in the international squad.{{citation needed|date=April

In his debut, Albania lost the game in Reykjavík 2–0 which added to their miserable run of 19 games without a single win.{{citation needed|date=April The game itself was not to be a special one for the rookie goalkeeper as he conceded 2 goals, which kept him aside for the following games.

Strakosha had to wait more than a year for his next shot at international football, with the departure of Agron Sulaj as the national manager and the introduction of Bejkush Birce.

This game was played after the fall of Communism in Albania which meant that from there on, players would be allowed to play abroad for the first time in 45 years. A notable impact like this, struck directly to the national team since nine players – notably Sulejman Demollari and Edmond Abazi – would be playing in foreign leagues, the majority choosing neighbour Greece, the same way Strakosha did.

His second international cap would be coincidentally in a friendly against these cross-border rivals which ended in a 2–0 win after striker Sokol Kushta scored twice.{{citation needed|date=April

Strakosha's career would follow up to the point to become Albania's most capped player, and achieving an extense career between the national team's goalposts.

Personal life

Strakosha was born in Memaliaj, southern Albania. His son Thomas plays as a goalkeeper for AEK Athens FC and the Albania national football team.[4] His son Dhimitri played as a striker in the lower leagues of Albania and Greece.

Managerial career

After his retirement, he became a goalkeeping coach. Until 2007 he was the Olympiakos goalkeeping coach, when he signed for the Cypriot champions APOEL FC. In 2011, he became the coach of Albania national under-19 football team.[5] He left Albania U19 on 12 August 2014 to work for Olympiacos[6] as goalkeeping coach.[7] He left Olympiacos and moved at Lazio Youth to work again as goalkeeping coach; he rejoined his son Thomas who was part of Lazio's senior team.[8]

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[3]
Club Season League Cup EuropeTemplate:Efn OtherTemplate:Efn Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Minatori Tepelenë 1985–86 — —
1986–87 — —
1987–88 Albanian First Division — —
Total — —
Dinamo Tirana 1988–89 Albanian Superliga — —
1989–90 31 0 — 1[9] 0 32 0
1990–91 7 0 2[10][11] 0 — 9 0
Total 38 0 2 0 1 0 41 0
PAS Giannina 1990–91 Alpha Ethniki 3 0 — — — 3 0
Ethnikos Piraeus 1991–92 Alpha Ethniki 17 0 — — — 17 0
1992–93 Beta Ethniki 16 0 — — — 16 0
Total 33 0 — — — 33 0
Olympiacos 1993–94 Alpha Ethniki 8 0 — 3[12][13][14] 0 — 11 0
1994–95 17 0 — — — 17 0
1995–96 12 0 — — — 12 0
1996–97 2 0 — 2[15][16] 0 — 4 0
Total 39 0 — 5 0 — 44 0
Panionios 1997–98 Alpha Ethniki 32 0 — — — 32 0
1998–99 24 0 — 6 0 — 30 0
Total 56 0 — 6 0 — 62 0
Ionikos 1999–2000 Alpha Ethniki 32 0 — 2 0 — 34 0
2000–01 25 0 — — — 25 0
2001–02 18 0 — — — 18 0
Total 75 0 — 2 0 — 77 0
Kallithea 2002–03 Alpha Ethniki 14 0 — — — 14 0
Kalamata 2002–03 Beta Ethniki 18 0 — — — 18 0
Ethnikos Asteras 2003–04 Beta Ethniki 13 0 — — — 13 0
Proodeftiki 2003–04 Alpha Ethniki 13 0 — — — 13 0
Panionios 2004–05 Alpha Ethniki 5 0 — — — 5 0
Career total 307 0 15 0 1 0 323 0

Template:Notelist

International

As of 9 February 2005Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".[3][17]
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
Albania 1990 1 0
1991 2 0
1992 4 0
1993 2 0
1994 4 0
1995 6 0
1996 2 0
1997 6 0
1998 6 0
1999 7 0
2000 5 0
2001 6 0
2002 2 0
2003 11 0
2004 8 0
2005 1 0
Total 73 0

Honours

Dinamo Tirana

Olympiacos

Panionios

References

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  4. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

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External links

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