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Hamdi Salihi

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Hamdi Salihi
Personal information
Full name Hamdi Salihi
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s) Striker
Team information
Current team
 Rapid Wien
Number 9
Total 189 (111)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 1 December 2009

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 Rapid Wien 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.

SK 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 29 goals in 33 games altogether.

SV 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 2007-08 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.

In the 2008-09 season Salihi improved himself to 14 league goals at Ried, scoring one fourth of his team's goals. Ried placed fifth at the end of the season.

Rapid Wien

On August 31, 2009 Salihi signed with Austrian giants SK Rapid Wien on a 3 years contract. On his first match with Rapid Salihi entered into the match in second half as a substitute and scored on the 83rd minute his first goal with Rapid. The goal drew the score with Salzburg, 2-2, and saved Rapid from a loss.

At the end of the season Salihi scored 17 goals making him the 5th leading goalscorer behind two of his team mates Steffen Hofmann, who was in first, and Nikica Jelavić who was tied in third. At the end of the season Rapid Wien was in third place three points behind champions Red Bull Salzburg and two points behind Austria Wien. Rapid Wien qualified for the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League Second qualifying round.

National team

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. Salihi scored the important 3-2 goal in a friendly for Albania B against AC Milan, The thriller match ended 3-3.

The second international goal of Salihi came in Sweden, when he scored for Albania in the last match of the FIFA 2010 World Cup Qualifiers. Albania lost 4-1. Neither Sweden nor Albania qualified for the FIFA 2010 World Cup.

Salihi has had overall 14 appearances with the National team, most of them as a substitute. Many Albanian sports fans believe that the player has been under utilized and has rarely given the chance to show off his goleador insticts.

Career stats

Updated to games played December 14, 2009.

Season Club Country Competition Matches Goals
2002–03 Vllaznia Shkodër  Albania Albanian Superliga 2 0
2003–04 Vllaznia Shkodër  Albania Albanian Superliga 33 14
2004 Vllaznia Shkodër  Albania Albanian Superliga 20 16
2004–05 Panionios  Greece Super League Greece 6 0
2005–06 SK Tirana  Albania Albanian Superliga 35 29
2006–07 SV Ried  Austria Austrian Bundesliga 15 6
2007–08 SV Ried  Austria Austrian Bundesliga 30 12
2008–09 SV Ried  Austria Austrian Bundesliga 32 14
2009–10 SV Ried, SK Rapid Wien  Austria Austrian Bundesliga 22 17
Total 193 108

International goals

Updated to games played October 14, 2009.

Hamdi Salihi: International goals
# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. August 22, 2007 Tirana, Albania  Malta 3–0 Win Friendly
2. October 14, 2009 Stockholm, Sweden  Sweden 1–4 Loss [[2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
3. May 25, 2010 Podgorica, Montenegro  Montenegro 1–0 Win Friendly]]

(UEFA)|FIFA World Cup 2010 Qualification]]

External links

References

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