Hamdi Salihi

Infobox Football biography
playername = Hamdi Salihi


fullname = Hamdi Salihi
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1984|1|19
cityofbirth = Shkodër
countryofbirth = Albania
height = height|m=1.85
position = Striker
currentclub = SV Ried
clubnumber = 14
youthyears = -2002
youthclubs = KS Vllaznia Shkodër
years = 2002-2004
2004-2005
2005-2006
2007-
clubs = KS Vllaznia Shkodër
Panionios Athen
SK Tirana
SV Ried
caps(goals) = 55 (30)
6 (0)
35 (29)
48 (18)
nationalyears = 2006-
nationalteam = Albania
nationalcaps(goals) = 8 (1)
pcupdate =
ntupdate = 14 September 2008

Hamdi Salihi (born January 19, 1984 in Shkodër, Albania) nicknamed "The Bomber" is an Albanian football player. He plays as a striker for Albania national football team and for SV Ried of Austria at club level.

KS Vllaznia Shkodër

Hamdi Salihi started his footballing career at KS Vllaznia Shkodër and then after an impressive season in Albania's top division he moved to Greece

Panionios

In 2004, Salihi moved to Panionios in in the top division of Greece. The young Albanian striker only managed to play in 6 games, mostly coming on as a substitute in the last few minutes. After an uneventful season in Greece Salihi decided to move back to Albania.

K Tirana

At the beginning of 2005/06 season he returned to Albania to play for SK Tirana where he had a very successful season winning the National Cup and the golden boot as the highest scorer of the league. He continued with KS Tirana for another half season, again being the highest scorer in the league before he left to play in the Austrian Bundesliga. In his time with SK Tirana Salihi became known all over the world for his goalscoring abilities. He finished 8th in The IFFHS World's best Top Division Goal Scorer 2006. In one season with SK Tirana he managed to score 47 goals in 49 games altogether.

V Ried

In the 2007 January transfer window Salihi joined SV Ried of the Austrian Bundesliga. He completed his first half season at SV Ried with 6 goals, helping his club to become vice-champions of the Austrian Football Bundesliga. Salihi also scored 2 goals on the first round Uefa Cup qualifiers against Neftchi, one of which was scored on the second leg match in the 85th minute. Until the 85th minute the score was 2-0 for Neftchi and if the score was kept they were going to qualify for the second round on the away goals rule 3-3 as SV Ried had won 3-1 at home. Thanks to Hamdi Salihi's goal the overall score was 4-3 and SV Ried safely went through to the next round. In the 2007-2008 season, Salihi enjoyed a decent season at the club, becoming the league's joint 4th top scorer along with Carsten Jancker of SV Mattersburg with 12 league goals. Despite this, SV Ried only finished 7th out of 10 in the league.

National Team

Hamdi Salihi is part of the Albania national football team, and started in the game that Albania had against Sweden in Tirana, valid for the WC2010 South Africa qualifying stage. He played well even though he missed a good chance. The game ended in a 0-0 draw, a very good start for Albania in the WC2010 qualifiers. Since currently he has six caps and has scored one goal. Hamdi Salihi scored his first goal for the Albanian National team in a 3-0 win over Malta on August 23, 2007. He was sent in the game on the 22nd minute replacing Erjon Bogdani. Only after 12 minutes played, "The Bomber" took advantage of a mistake made by the Maltese goalie and scored. He also played in a recent friendly against Poland, a match where he was out to make a good impression because it was new coach, Arie Haan's first match in charge.

Career Stats

External links

* [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/players/player=66662/index.html Hamdi Salihi] Statistics UEFA.com
* [http://www.footballdatabase.eu/football.joueurs.hamdi.salihi.19111.en.html] Football Database