Blendi Nallbani
Blendi Nallbani is a Goalkeeper for KF Tirana. At only 17 years old, he was the youngest ever player to play for the Albanian National Team. He allowed 5 goals to a strong English side in his premiere at Wembley Stadium. However, had it not been for his strong performance, Albania would have suffered an even greater defeat. After the game, the English media praised Nallbani's performance as one of the greatest performances and Shilton (legendary English goalkeeper) was himself amazed by that performance!
"He (Shilton) was 21 when he first pulled on an England jersey and that helped to produce a fascinating statistic when England met Albania in a World Cup qualifier at Wembley in 1989. Blendi Nallbani, the goalkeeper at the other end, was only 17 and hadn't been born when Shilts made his debut."1
At 17 years old, Nallbani was also the youngest goalkeeper to play in an England match.2
After that famous English game and another one against Spain, Nallbani had offers from other famed European Clubs (Barcelona, Juventus, Anderlecht, and some Romanian and Turkish clubs). However, due to the "communist Albania" he wasn't allowed to play for teams outside the country or his family would be persecuted and possibly jailed.
After the fall of communism he was bale to play for 2 years in Romania, but then moved back to Albania for good. Nallbani is well known for his hot temper in the field, and all his teammates know that if they are involved in a fight during a match, Nallbani will always be there to cover their back!
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Position(s) | Goalkeeper | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | SK Tirana | ||
| ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 19 Jul 2006 | |||
Season Club Games Goals 06/07 SK Tirana 0 0 05/06 SK Tirana 0 0 04/05 SK Tirana 8 0 03/04 Partizani Tirana 34 0 02/03 Partizani Tirana 24 0 01/02 Partizani Tirana 25 0 00/01 SK Tirana 26 0 99/00 SK Tirana 26 0 98/99 SK Tirana 0 0 97/98 SK Tirana 0 0 96/97 Partizani Tirana 28 0 95/96 Partizani Tirana 27 1 94/95 Partizani Tirana 28 0
1 http://www.thefa.com/WorldCup2006/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2006/05/WorldCup_Shilton.htm
2 http://www.thefa.com/England/SeniorTeam/Archive/matchstats.html?m=644