Enis Gavazaj

Enis Gavazaj

Gavazaj with Albania U21
Personal information
Full name	Enis Gavazaj
Date of birth	(1995-03-21) 21 March 1995
Place of birth	Prizren, FR Yugoslavia (now Kosovo)
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current team	Skënderbeu
Number	TBD
Youth career
2003–2008	Getoari
2008–2011	Liria
2011–2013	Prishtina
2013	Gent
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2013–2016	Gent	7	(0)
2015–2016	→ Roeselare (loan)	5	(0)
2016–	Skënderbeu	1	(0)
National team‡
2010–2012	Kosovo U17	?	(?)
2012–2014	Albania U19	6	(1)
2013–	Albania U21	12	(1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 3 September 2015

Enis Gavazaj (born 21 March 1995) is an Albanian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Skënderbeu in the Albanian Superliga and the Albania national under-21 football team.

Career

Early career

He started his youth career at the age of 8 at Liria Prizren school academies, from where he moved to the youth teams of the club in 2008 where he stayed for 3 years until 2011, before moving to the most successful football club in Kosovo, FC Prishtina, at the age of 16.^[1][2] Standing for two years at FC Prishtina, on 8 August 2013 he signed for Belgium side K.A.A. Gent in the Belgian Pro League.^[3]

Gent

In December 2013 Gavazaj gained entry with the first team of Gent, as he called up for the match against Anderlecht on 15 December 2013, finished in the loss 1–2, in where Gavazaj was an unused substitute for the entire match.^[4] He made it his first debut for Gent at age 18 against Genk on 26 January 2014, coming on as a substitute in the stoppage time 90'+2 in place of Yaya Soumahoro, where the match finished in the away victory 1–2.^[5] The second match for Gent came on 8 February 2014 against Oostende, where he came in as a substitute in the 81st minute in the place of Brecht Dejaegere.^[6] After some games as an unused substitute, Gavazaj played on 1 March 2014 against Sporting Charleroi, where he included in the starting line up and got substituted off in the 57th minute for Renato Neto.^[7] Gavazaj played on 8 March 2014 in a match against Cercle Brugge, coming on as a substitute in the 73rd minute of the match in place of Nana Akwasi Asare and in the 81st minute Gavazaj gave an assist for the 3rd goal of the match scored by Mahamadou Habibou, were the match finished as an away victory 1–4.^[8] After that game, he included in best eleven of the week in Belgian Pro League.^[9] Gavazaj played on 3 May 2014 against Lierse, coming on as a substitute in the 61st minute in place of Danijel Milićević and 13 minutes after in the 74th' he assisted the latest match's goal scored by Hervé Kage, as the match finished in the victory 4–0, with 3 other goals scored by Habib Habibou as a Hat-trick.^[10]

Gavazaj did not play for 4 months since the start of the 2014–15 season and this due to several injuries that have followed him, including and at one call-up with Albania national under-21 football team. But anyway in February 2015 he declared for a Kosovo-Albanian newspaper, Gazeta Olle, that he was healthy and got returned training with the team as a fully recovered.^[11]

Loan to Roeselare

On 6 July 2015 Gavazaj was loaned to Belgian Second Division side Roeselare to gain more experience by enjoying more playing options.^[12]

International career

Gavazaj was member of the Kosovo youth-level national teams for 2 years before moving to the Albania national under-19 football team.^[1] He included in Foto Strakosha's squad for their 2013 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification.^[13] In the first match of the tournament on 12 October 2012 against Italy, Gavazaj made it his debut by playing as a starter and got substituted off in the 79th minute for Lorenc Shehaj in a match finished as a 3–0 loss.^[14] In the next match against Belgium he included in the starting line-up and after 26 minutes of play, he scored a long-rage goal away from 33 metters.^[15] The match finished in the 3–1 victory.^[16]

After a good performance with Albania U-19, he received a call-up by Albania U-21's coach Skënder Gega for the match against Austria, valid for the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification. He made it his debut against Austria on 14 August 2013, by coming on as a substitute in the 65th minute in place of Herolind Shala and the match finished in the loss 0–1.^[17] He made it another two appearances in the U-21 tournament, playing against Spain on 9 September 2013, finished in the loss 4–0 and against Bosnia and Herzegovina on 15 October 2013, finished in the loss 0–1.^[18][19]

He returned to Albania U-19 for the match valid for the 2014 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification against Greece on 12 November 2013, where he played the full 90 minutes match, which finished in the 1–0 loss.^[20]

Gavazaj called up again in Albania U-21 for the closing match of the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 qualification on 5 March 2014, against Austria, which previously he were called up for the first time and had made it his debut for Albania U-21.^[21] He played against Austria U-21 as a starter and scored the match opening goal in the 19th minute, where the match finished in away 1–3 victory with other goals scored by Vasil Shkurti and Herolind Shala.^[22]

Gavazaj was called up for the next tournament even of Albania U21, the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification opening match against Liechtenstein on 28 March 2015.^[23] Under the same coach Skënder Gega he retained his starting place against Liechtenstein where in the 31st minute he managed to take a personal action from the left side and to provide an assist for Liridon Latifi, who inside the area scores the opening goal. Then in the second-half Rey Manaj which came in as a substitute, scored the second goal to give Albania U21 the 2–0 victory.^[24]

Gavazaj was called up by a new appointed coach at the Albania U21, Redi Jupi, for the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification matches against Israel & Portugal on 3 & 8 September 2015.^[25] For the match against Irael, he was named as the national side Captain playing the full 90-minutes match finished in the 1–1 draw.^[26]

International caps and goals

Albania's goal tally first.

Albania national under-19 football team [27]
#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Competition	Goal
2012
1	14 October	Flamurtari Stadium, Vlorë, Albania	Belgium	3–1	2013 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification	1–0
2	17 October	Flamurtari Stadium, Vlorë, Albania	Belarus	0–1	2013 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification	–
2013
3	11 October	Lovech Stadium, Lovech, Bulgaria	Greece	0–1	2014 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification	–
4	14 November	Lovech Stadium, Lovech, Bulgaria	Slovakia	1–1	2014 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification	–
5	17 November	Lovech Stadium, Lovech, Bulgaria	Bulgaria	2–2	2014 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification	–

Albania national under-21 football team
#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Competition	Goal
2013
1	14 August	Flamurtari Stadium, Vlorë, Albania	Austria	0–1	2013 UEFA Under-21 Championship	–
2	9 September	Estadio Las Gaunas, Logroño, Spain	Spain	4–0	2013 UEFA Under-21 Championship	–
3	15 October	Ruzhdi Bizhuta Stadium, Elbasan, Albania	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0–1	2013 UEFA Under-21 Championship	–
2014
4	5 March	UPC-Arena, Graz, Austria	Austria	1–3	2015 UEFA Euro Under-21 qualification	0–1

Career statistics

Club

As of 6 July 2015 ^[28]

References

External links

• Enis Gavazaj profile at Soccerway
• Enis Gavazaj – UEFA competition record